Fayette County priest charged with sexually assaulting 11-year-old boy

A 65-year-old priest who worked in Fayette County is charged with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old altar boy in the early 2000s.

Father Andrew M. Kawecki of Scottdale faces two counts of indecent assault and one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in connection with a series of incidents between 2004-07, when the alleged victim’s family left St. Cyril and Methodius Church in Fairchance.

“With the release of our grand jury report on abuse two years ago, I promised we would hold anyone who was abusing children accountable, no matter how powerful the institution behind them,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Survivors experience a lifetime of anguish and trauma trying to overcome the impact of abuse, especially when it is committed by the hands of their own parish priest. No cover-up is too long, no institution too powerful to stop us from doing our job. We will not let predators get away with the sexual assault of children.”

The investigation into Kawecki was initiated in May 2019., and arose from a tip generated in the wake of the attorney general’s 2018 grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania

The Diocese of Greensburg reported the allegations to PA ChildLine after the alleged victim applied to the Survivor’s Compensation Fund, set up by the diocese for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“Father Kawecki was immediately removed from ministry, and his parishioners were notified about the allegation,” according to a statement the diocese issued Wednesday. “Father Kawecki denies the allegation.”

The alleged victim told investigators from the attorney general’s office that Kawecki would instruct him to be dropped off at the church at least an hour before Mass and would sometimes be asked to stay afterward.

“The victim explained that, as an athlete, he knew the difference when men touched him,” Special Agent Stephen Adametz wrote in the criminal complaint. “The victim said when his coach touched him, it was ‘not weird’ but when Kawecki touched him, ‘it was something else.’ ”

Kawecki would have the victim help with trivial tasks at the church before suggesting sexual acts that eventually led to forced masturbation and one instance of oral sex, Adametz wrote.

In subsequent interviews with the victim’s parents, “they reported … that the more the victim served Masses under Kawecki, the more problems they saw in their son,” according to the criminal complaint.

Kawecki’s personnel file from the diocese did not include any documented reports of child sexual abuse, investigators said, but did document “a long history of impulse control, honesty problems, deception and abuse of authority issues,” Adametz wrote.

Kawecki was arraigned Wednesday and released on $50,000 bond. He faces a Sept. 9 preliminary hearing in Judge Daniel Shimshock’s Masontown court.