FESSED, AND PREYED AGAIN
N.Y. priest told clergy he abused dozens
Confession, while good for the soul, did nothing to protect the child victims of Rev. Edmond Parrakow.
The predator priest sought absolution from fellow Catholic clergy for his repeated sexual abuse of altar boys and other young males — and then continued to prey on other innocents, according to a damning new report.
Parrakow, a native New Yorker ordained in St. Patrick's Cathedral on June 1, 1968, “thought that sex with a girl was sinful and that sex with a (male) child was not violating them,” a doctor wrote after interviewing the pervert priest.
Parrakow, now 78, confessed to sexually molesting roughly three dozen boys during his 17 years in the Archdiocese of New York. Despite the admissions and a clinical diagnosis of pedophilia, the priest was then transferred to another diocese in Pennsylvania where his bizarre sexual fixation continued.
At a parish in Mount Pleasant, Pa., the priest known as “Father Ed instructed all the altar boys to go nude beneath their cassocks while serving on the altar at Mass. He also performed physical exams on the boys, touching their genitals and their buttocks while instructing the kids to tell no one.
The sordid details emerged in the Pennsylvania attorney general's 884-page report on pedophile priests in the Keystone State. The Parrakow case was one of three cited as providing “a window into the conduct of past Pennsylvania bishops and the crimes they permitted to occur on their watch,” said the report.
During his time in New York, Parrakow worked at three parishes: Assumption Catholic Church in Tuckahoe, Westchester County, St. Peter's Church in Yonkers and St. Martin of Tours in the Bronx. He served for 11 years at the Bronx parish, with his stay interrupted by an accusation of sexual abuse dating back to the late '60s. A man emerged to say that he was targeted by Parrakow as a teenager.
The priest was shipped to Jemez Springs, N.M., for inpatient treatment at a facility known as Foundation House. Once there, he admitted the previous sexual New York assaults and acknowledged preferring boys aged 15 or 16 for his vile trysts.
He confessed to engaging in sexual touching, mutual masturbation, mutual fellatio and mutual intercourse, according to the doctor.
“My impression is that (Parrakow) certainly has pedophilia,” wrote the doctor. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind …. Basically, if he had not got caught he would be continuing the behavior … thinking it was really not that harmful.”
Parrakow was then sent to the Diocese of Greensburg in Pennsylvania in a deal worked out with New York archdiocese officials. Bishop William Connare agreed to take on Parrakow even after learning about the initial allegation that landed the priest in treatment.
The bishop also ignored a letter from Foundation House officials urging the church to keep Parrakow out of any parish with a school.
"From my interview with Father Ed, it would seem that his problem is in the past,” wrote Connare in a confidential memo after speaking with Parrakow. The document was kept in the diocese's secret archives and uncovered by prosecutors.
Father Ed's service in Pennsylvania ended after a complaint about inappropriate conduct with a seventh-grade boy in early 1989, leading to Parrakow's removal from any priestly duties. He was formally removed from the priesthood in 2004.
“Although I have not had the opportunity to confirm all of the details contained in the report, if it is accurate, this is an example of the completely wrong way that the church dealt with these cases in the past,” said Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the New York Archdiocese.
The ex-priest — currently employed in a Pennsylvania shopping mall — cannot be prosecuted for any of his crimes due to the statute of limitations. During questioning by a Pennsylvania prosecutor in the probe, Parrakow indicated he was unaware of any “serious effects” of his sexual abuse on the victims.
The prosecutor then put a Biblical twist on his query: “You didn't know that Scripture itself says it is better to put a millstone around your neck and be cast into the sea than harm a child?”
“That,” acknowledged Parrakow, “I knew.”