" Compulsive and Addictive" Troubled Priest Returned to Parish Ministry in Fresno, California Catholic Daily [California], April 15, 2007

" Compulsive and Addictive"
Troubled Priest Returned to Parish Ministry in Fresno

California Catholic Daily [California]
April 15, 2007

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=16ce16d5-2da7-4eeb-8588-7f6aa57bea5f

Father Jean-Michael Lastiri, removed by Fresno Bishop John Steinbock as pastor of St. Patrick's in Merced in 2004 for soliciting liaisons on a homosexual website, once again is in parish work.

According to the April 8 edition of the diocesan newspaper Central California Catholic Life, Bishop Steinbock appointed Lastiri as administrator of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Fresno on March 7.

In 2004, parishioners discovered that Lastiri frequented a homosexual website. One Lastiri post read: "Want sex. CA bear visiting Orlando on Friday, 7/23... looking for fun in other bears/admirers..." After removing Lastiri from St. Patrick's, Steinbock called Lastiri's participation on the website "totally inappropriate" and said the priest "denied any inappropriate sexual activity on his part and declared he only entertained fantasies through this activity on the Internet."

Because Lastiri's behavior was "compulsive and addictive," Steinbock said he was sending him to Maryland's St. Luke's Institute for "psychological and spiritual counseling."

"Fr. Lastiri apologizes for any pain he has caused the community and wishes to seek the appropriate help to overcome his compulsive behavior so that he may return, with God's grace, to full ministry as a good and faithful priest," wrote Steinbock.

After a leave of absence, Lastiri, presumably, went to St. Luke's, for, in June 2005, Steinbock tried to place him as an associate at Bakersfield's St. Philip the Apostle's parish. After parishioner protest, however, Steinbock withdrew the appointment, telling parishioners Lastiri's problem was not "criminal sexual behavior" but "has been one of addiction... both to the fantasy world of the Internet and to the spending of money."

The "spending of money" referred to a May 2005 audit of St. Patrick's in Merced, which revealed that Lastiri, in Steinbock's phrase, had "misspent" $60,000 in parish money on personal travel, purchase of personal goods and services, personal loans, a down payment on a car, and other items. Steinbock then made Lastiri diocesan director of detention ministry and, in 2006, director of liturgy, worship, and evangelization.

Steinbock supports the ordination of homosexuals. In an October 20, 2004 letter to a St. Patrick's parishioner, Steinbock wrote, "I have stated publicly that what is important of any priest, whether he has a heterosexual or homosexual orientation, is that he is living a celibate life style, faithful to the Lord Jesus and the teaching of the church, and then indeed he can be a good priest."

Even after the Holy See declared in 2005 that men with deep-seated homosexual tendencies were not to be ordained, Steinbock did not change his opinion, according to a December 25, 2005 Central California Catholic Life article by Monsignor Anthony Janelli.

Bishop Steinbock, according to Janelli, supported a statement by Cardinal Roger Mahony, which said, "It is my prayer that all who are ordained or vowed for the service of the Church, whether they are heterosexual or have homosexual tendencies, may reaffirm their deep commitment to Christ and to a life of chastity and celibacy after the example of Jesus himself."