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  New Light Shed on Fr Skehan Case

By Laura Keys
Kilkenny People
May 14, 2009

http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/New-light-shed-on-Fr.5267340.jp

FATHER John Skehan, 82, the elderly Kilkenny priest who was convicted of stealing more than US$400,000 from his church collection plate in Delray Beach, Florida began his 14-month sentence in a US jail 12 days ago.

The real story behind the "biggest financial scandal to hit the Catholic Church in decades" was aired in a TV documentary, White Collar Crime, featuring an in-depth interview with the fallen priest from Johnstown on RTE 1 on Monday night.

Fr Skehan spoke out for the first time since his arrest, detailing exactly how and why he took the money. The documentary also threw some new light on the case by claiming that there was more than US$7 million in church accounts when Fr Skehan retired.

He served as the priest in St Vincent Ferrer's parish for more than 40 years and was charged with stealing the money and using it to fund a "lifestyle befitting an international playboy, gambling holidays in the Bahamas and Las Vegas, lavish trips to Ireland and taking bags of money and going off to Las Vegas".

Father John Skehan, 82, originally of Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny, who was jailed for 14 months for stealing for than US$400,000 from his church collection plate in Delray Beach, Florida.

Night of arrest

He was arrested on grand theft charges more than two years after he retired from St Vincent's parish in 2003. He was holidaying in Ireland when the warrant for his arrest was issued in 2006 and he was apprehended as he stepped off the plane on US soil.

As he was driven away in a police car, the priest naively asked police whether he thought he should have an attorney.

"I told him if he'd done something wrong, the best thing for him would be to just admit it," The investigating detective, Tom Whately said.

Even after two hours of questioning at the hands of police, it appeared Fr Skehan did not understand the gravity of his crime, politely asking the police to let him go home.

"I feel terrible. Are you going to let me go home tonight?" he asked the detective.

He was shocked to hear the reply: "No, I'm going to have to take you to jail."

"You're kidding?" Fr Skehan asked. "Why do you have to keep me in jail? Why do you have to do that?"

Bail was set at US$40,000 and Fr Skehan spent nearly two days in jail before his parishioners raised enough money to bail him out.

Why he did it

Speaking after his arrest, Skehan grew emotional talking about his short time behind bars and the reason he ended up there.

He felt he was entitled to some of the money because he was underpaid by the church and had been given no provisions for his retirement after more than four decades of service.

"We're getting pennies for salaries," he said. "We're running a big, big business and we get absolutely nothing for it. It's supposed to be for, you know, vocation and you're doing it for God and that, which is fine. But when you put it all together, you begin to realise how much you're been used and abused down through the years and you have access to this money and it's so easy to use it in other areas.

"But the parish never suffered. I did everything that could possibly be done for that parish."

Fr Skehan maintained that, as the leader of St Vincent's parish, he had the right to spend the church funds as he saw fit.

"I was brought up in the old regime, where pastors had power over their own funds and were never questioned, so I felt I could do with the money what was needed," he said.

Where it went

"I withheld that money as a contingency plan for when people needed the money. And the parish made no provisions for retired priests, once you retire, you're own your own. I needed some money for my retirement."

Answering questions about how he spent the money and replying to allegations about gambling trips to Las Vegas and abroad, Fr Skehan said: "Some people do go gambling (to Las Vegas) but there are also some beautiful golf courses there, so that was the condition on which I went. For golf," he said. "I had no interest in gambling, ever, and Guinan agreed to play golf with me. In the evenings, we'd go and see a show and he would head off to the tables and I'd go to bed."

And what about that infamous gold coin collection worth US$400,000 he is alleged to have bought with church funds?

"I paid for 99% of the things I bought with my own money," he said. "Well, maybe not 99%, but at least 80%."

Parishioners' support

These claims were supported by many parishioners of St Vincent's and he was described by Delray Beach locals as the "beating heart" and "driving force" of the parish, as well as "hugely popular with his parishioners".

Florida property developer, Frank McKinney who is one of Fr Skehan's most ardent supporters, likened him to "the little leprechaun on the Lucky Charms cereal box who has such a gravitational pull of love around him".

"His supporters advocate that the funds which were misappropriated had been used for the good of the church," Mr McKinney said.

"If you needed marriage counselling, he'd say 'here's $500, go get your marriage counselling' or substance abuse care or whatever. You could multiply the times he did that by thousands over the years. He didn't steal the money, he gave it to people who needed it, which is what the intent was when it came into the church in the first place."

Catholic church fundraiser, Ed Ricci put it slightly differently. "The parishioners came into the church and put money into the offertory tray with some sense that it's going to charity, but certainly not the way these priests used it," Mr Ricci said.

"It gave the priests an opportunity to live a lifestyle on a a level that was clearly above what they used to live in Ireland."

Fr Skehan plead guilty and received a 14-month sentence, despite making more than US$700,000 restitution to the church, and the prosecution, defence and diocese all asking for leniency and no jail time for the elderly priest.

A spokesman for the diocese said their primary concern in the case was for "restitution, not incarceration".

Fr Skehan broke down at the sentencing when he spoke to the judge: "I stand before the court with respect, great humility and remorse. I humbly ask the court to consider the whole of my life and the good things I have done."

But despite this, the judge called the crime "pure greed unmasked" and a "huge violation of trust".

Fr Skehan's sentence was suspended for six weeks and he entered county jail to begin his sentence on May 1.

Speaking after his sentence was announced, Fr Skehan stood by his decision to plead guilty.

"I had violated the law and had no choice but to plead guilty. I felt I was doing the right thing for people," he said.

His co-accused, Fr Francis Guinan of Co. Offaly plead not guilty to the charges and went to court.

Fr Guinan's defence hung on a small paragraph in a Palm Beach Diocese memorandum which stated that: "A Priest has discretion of spending US$50,000 without the permission of anyone else".

He argued that, as no time limit was specified, this clause entitled him to spend up to that amount as often as he wanted and therefore, wasn't stealing.

He subsequently re-ceived a four-year jail term after his defence was thrown out.

 
 

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