Msgr. Michael Matusak, retired Greensburg Diocese priest at center of abuse probe, dead at 69

A retired Greensburg Diocese priest, suspended from his Uniontown parish 14 months ago following the first of two abuse allegations, died Sunday, Oct. 13, at the diocesan residence for retired priests, a spokesman for the Greensburg Diocese said Monday.

Monsignor Michael Matusak, 69, was on administrative leave from his duties pending the resolution of the abuse allegations, when he was approved for retirement earlier this year.

Diocesan officials said they had not yet received the results of the investigation into the allegations against Matusak when he died.

Matusak, who was a priest in the Greensburg Diocese for 44 years, was placed on administrative leave from his duties in a Uniontown parish in August 2018, after diocesan officials received what they deemed a credible allegation of abuse dating back to his service at St. Pius X in Mt. Pleasant between 1997 and 2008.

Matusak served in Uniontown since 2008 at St. John the Evangelist, St. Joseph, St. Mary (Nativity) and St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus.

Following the release of a statewide grand jury report Aug. 14, 2018, a woman who had been a parishioner at St. Pius X contacted the diocese to say Matusak molested her when she was a teenager

Diocesan officials referred a second complaint deemed credible to Peck’s office in March. That investigation centered on allegations that Matusak had sexually abused a young woman between 1973 and 1976 while he was a deacon at St. Hedwig Parish in Smock and then stalked and harassed her for two decades.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said his office determined the St.Pius X allegations fell outside of the state’s statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.