Greg Malia’s personal ad might read something like this:
WM. Works hard and plays hard. Entrepreneur by day, big-time partier by night. If your idea of a good time is the Manhattan club scene, I spare no expense. Meet me tonight at the Pink Elephant. Oh, btw, did I mention I moonlight as a vicar at a quaint little town in Pennsylvania?
Yep. Greg Malia’s a holy kind of guy who’s been dubbed the Partying Priest by the NY Daily News. You gotta see the pics on this one!
When the story got out about Malia’s pricey late nights, club-hopping and wining and dining the ladies, within hours, Malia’s career with the church was in serious trouble.
The NY Daily News article stated that the same day the Episcopal Church opened an investigation on Reverend Gregory Malia, new photos of him surfaced -- taking shots with some beauties wearing identical mini-dresses and drinking Perrier Jouet pink champagne (a bottle that costs $550) at the Pink Elephant.
Malia, a vicar at a summer parish in Dundaff that opens for about 10 Sundays a year, will be removed from his duties there and he won’t be able to “exercise priestly ministry” according to the bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem, Pa., Rev. Paul Marshall.
“The allegations made in the [Daily News] article, if true, constitute a serious violation of ordination vows to be ‘a wholesome example’ to a priest's people. If true, they may also violate other canonical provisions and certainly portray an unacceptable idea of Christian stewardship,” Bishop Marshall wrote in a statement released on December 28.
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When NBC Philadelphia contacted the diocese about Malia’s investigation, we received this statement from Reverend Canon Bill Lewellis, Communication Minister for the diocese of Bethlehem:
“Bishop Marshall has passed this matter on to the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Bethlehem, five clergy and five lay people who are elected for three-year terms by parish representatives at our annual Diocesan Convention. While the Standing Committee investigates, deliberates and makes a recommendation to him, Bishop Marshall will be out of the picture. Nor will I be able to comment, because I am an elected member of the Standing Committee.”
According to the New York Daily News, Malia said his after-hours visits to the clubs were mainly to meet with fund-raisers for the charity work he does and contacts for his business, New Life Home Care in Pittstown, Pa. That’s a private pharmacy which caters to hemophiliacs. Malia is a hemophiliac.
