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	Fr Jack Has Done His Time and Wants to Come Home Kilkenny People January 19, 2010 http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/Fr-Jack-has-done-his.5994338.jp Fr Jack Skehan wants to come home. The 82-year-old who was controversially jailed for fraud against his old parish in Florida wants to return to his native Johnstown and County Kilkenny. He is due to be released on April 3 and will come back to Ireland if he thinks he is welcome here. The Kilkenny People is asking its readers to have their say in the man nicknamed the Robin Hood of the Sacristy. The true picture of the man who built up the parish where he served over 40 years is only now emerging. And supporters have placed a weekly blog (on-line diary) on the internet which is viewed by thousands of people every week. Much of the money he took from the parish went back into schools and to defray costs. In one case, $100,000 went to the book keeper on her retirement after nearly 40 years work for the parish and for much of that time she was unpaid. And as part of the plea bargaining that went on before he pleaded guilty, his defence team agreed not to go into specifics of where he spent the cash to do good. There were gasps from the body of the court when, on May 1 of last year, he was sentenced to 14 months in prison and seven years on probation after he pleaded guilty to grand theft of more than $100,000 from the collection plates at St. Vincent Ferrer, where he was a well-loved pastor for more than four decades. “When he moved here 40 years ago it was a poor parish but he built it up and it is in a strong financial state today,” Mrs Donahue told the Kilkenny People from her Florida home. And even the detective that directed the case against him felt the sentence was to harsh and that he should have received the Probation Act. Det Thomas Whatley claimed that the Attorney General and people who represented the diocese were “all on the same page in that he should receive 10 years probation," Det. Whatley said. "This was because of his age and the fact that he made as much restitution as he possibly financially could back to the church, which was in the region of US$700,000 and he admitted wrongdoing and guilt." Det Whatley said he struggled to find anyone throughout the investigation who disliked Fr Skehan - including the parishioners he took from. "He was a well-liked priest in the community," Det Whatley said. "In fact, I like him and I haven't said that about too many first-degree felons in my 21 years of investigations, but I liked him when I walked him into the jail to get booked. Trying to interview and talk to people that really supported Skehan was a really difficult task because I couldn't find one person who disliked him.” One of Fr Jack’s most passionate supporters, Michelle Donahue, pointed out that Fr Jack had ad mitted his mistake and now wanted nothing more that forgiveness and the chance to help others. This is reflected in the fact that he refused to be taken from the small cramped cell into a more comfortable one in a more secure area of the Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown, Florida where two inmates have been murdered in the last number of years. That’s because he had started bible reading with the inmates where he was located and had developed a bond with many of them. During the three years from his arrest to his conviction for stealing from his parish, there has been a complete lockdown on personal information about the Rev. John Skehan. Inside Fr Skehan describes his daily routine in his own words while we also re-print the most recent blogs from the website which we are not making public for security reasons. Thanks to the internet we now know what Skehan, 82, is thinking, reading, praying about and eating. Mrs Donahue, a former head of the parent organisation at Fr Jack;’s parish, visits him almost every weekend, bearing good tidings from the blog and from friends in Delray Beach. She went to see him on Monday because it was a public holiday in the states, Martin Luther King Day. In a caring and sensitive manner, Donahue has chronicled the ebbs and flows in the life of the fallen cleric since May 1. At his trial, the defence had testimonials from over 150 parishioners which the judge did not get to see but these people have remained true to the man they saw as a confidante and a guide, despite his many mistakes and the ferocity with which the world press came at him in order to demonise a man who, although being a felon, had done many, many wonderful things during his ministry. Mrs Donahue confirmed that among those in his guestbook on the website are developer Frank McKinney and his wife, Nilsa, parishioners, nuns, other religious professionals and some unfamiliar people who have taken up Fr Jack’s plight. In six months they have filled eight screens on the Web site with fond messages of encouragement. His successor, Francis Guinan, received a four-year prison term in March after being convicted of related theft charges and it seems that when he came to the parish there was a cold wind of change. In July, Fr Jack celebrated his 82nd birthday, in isolation, inside the stark grey walls, among 1,500 male prisoners, most serving terms far longer than his. Shortly after Skehan was interned in May, a prisoner serving a 15-year sentence for carjacking was stabbed to death in the prison yard. Mrs Donahue confirmed that Fr Jack, she calls him “Pops” in the blog is suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, insomnia, high cholesterol, severe depression, hearing loss and level-B prostate cancer. With a rich Irish heritage, Mrs Donahue, formerly a McCormack, remains a staunch advocate for the man who was her confessor since she was a girl, even while conceding his guilt in some matters. "I am proud that he admitted to his wrongdoing and takes responsibility for his actions," she said. Donahue said the experience of setting up the blog has been inspiring. "I've never been a part of something so powerful in my life," she said. She claimed that Fr Skehan has been spiritually transformed, to the point that when he was offered space in a more comfortable area of the prison, he opted to stay with the men who seemed to be touched by his humility and faith. "I'm following the path Christ has put me on," Donahue wrote, quoting Skehan.
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