Rev. Paul Pavese was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania on February 7, 1917. the fifth of nine children born to immigrant parents from Potencza, southern Italy. After finishing elementary school, he pursued an early desire for the priesthood by entering the minor seminary in Pittston directed by the Oblates of St. Joseph. After graduating from St. John's High School in Pittston, he was admitted to the novitiate of the Oblates in Alba, northern Italy, that same year. There he pronounced his first vows as an Oblate of St. Joseph in 1935. On completing his studies in the Oblate Major Seminary in Asti, Italy, he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Joseph's Shrine in Asti on April 19, 1942.

Father Pavese spent the first three years of his priesthood as a teacher and spiritual guide in the Oblate Major Seminary in Asti. His eleven year stay in Italy gave him the enviable opportunity to acquire an appreciable command of the Italian language that was to serve him well in his later pastoral ministry among Italian immigrants.

On returning to the United States in 1945, he was assigned to Saint Rocco's Church, Pittston, where he served for two years as Assistant Pastor. The next seven years saw him as Director of Saint Hoseph's House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he guided Oblate seminarians attending Catholic University. During that time, he pursued graduate studies at the university, earning a licentiate in Theology and a Master's degree in Latin.

Sent by his religious superiors to California, he taught at St. Joseph's Minor Seminary in Santa Cruz for ten years, then served two terms as regional superior of the California Oblates, and finally one year as novice master.

He was recalled to Pennsylvania in 1971 to take up duties as Rector of St. Joseph's Oblate Seminary in Laflin. He served successively as pastor of St. Rocco's Church and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Pittston.

A new opportunity for pastoral service opened in 1979 when Father Pavese became part of a three-priest team sent to Middletown, Connecticut, to take charge of St. Sebastian's parish, the only Italian parish in the Diocese of Norwich. After ten years of pastoral ministry there, he returned to Pittston. In September 1990 he was assigned as pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. In 1997, Father Pavese stepped down from his responsibilities as pastor and was appointed Pastor Emeritus. He was succeeded as Pastor by Father Paul McDonnell, O.S.J.

Father Pavese presently resides at Little Flower Manor in the Diocese of Scranton, but remains an active member of the Oblate community and is well respected for his years of service to the church and the Oblates of St. Joseph.