His parents were Henri Paelinck, an accountant, and Irène Dumoulin, a seamstress.

He studied at the Royal Athenaeum and then at the Koloniale Hogeschool in Antwerp, graduating in 1928.

He was made provincial secretary in Lusambo and Jadotstad in 1951, and in Elisabethville in 1953.

[1] Paelinck succeeded Roger Le Bussy as governor of Kasaï Province on 20 April 1955.

[2] In January 1956 he succeeded René Wauthion as governor of Katanga Province.