Chaput removes Olney priest involved in side business

A Roman Catholic Philadelphia priest, who has identified himself as “an online business owner” – a avocation not permitted by the church – has been removed as “unsuitable for ministry,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced on Sunday.

The Rev. Geraldo Pinero, former pastor of Incarnation of Our Lord Church, 5105 N. Fifth St. in the Olney neighborhood, had committed “a substantiated violation of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries,” the announcement stated.

The announcement did not define his violation.

But the priest was “a local face of a pyramid-like Illinois-based enterprise calling itself Teamwork Revolution Power Systems,” The Inquirer reported after federal agents served a search warrant on the Incarnation rectory in November 2010.

The Teamwork local site, with a photo of Father Pinero in a tuxedo, promised progressive income for joining a “matrix” of other members, then benefiting as others signed up.

It was not known whether the enterprise had any connection to the visit by federal agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal court records show no criminal or civil action against Pinero since the search.

Speaking in November 2010, an archdiocese spokeswoman stated that “outside secular employment would not be permitted” for a priest, though exceptions might include teaching at a Catholic university or giving faith-related lectures.

The archdiocese removed Pinero, 47, from Incarnation parish “in November 2010 when federal authorities executed a search warrant at the parish rectory,” the Sunday announcement stated. [More]

SOURCE

Philly.Com