Bronx priest accused of using $1 million in church funds to fund S&M love affair resigns from church

By Barbara Ross, Ross Keith, Larry Mcshane
New York Daily News
December 12, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/priest-fired-sex-embezzlement-rumors-true-article-1.2463726

The Rev. Peter Miqueli, left, was accused in a Manhattan lawsuit of looting more than $1 million from a pair of city parishes to help fund a perverse long-term love affair with a hunky boyfriend, Keith Crist.

“Obviously, his priesthood will be over” if a church probe turns up evidence of anything illegal, said Dolan. Photo by Richard Harbus

The suit was filed by parishioners from St. Frances de Chantal Church in the Bronx, where Miqueli is still the pastor, and St. Francis Cabrini on Roosevelt Island.

An alleged S&M-loving Bronx priest is now feeling his parishioners’ pain.

The Rev. Peter Miqueli, accused of fleecing his flocks in two city parishes to finance a freaky sex life, announced his resignation Saturday as pastor of a Bronx church.

Hours before the word came at the 5 p.m. Mass, Timothy Cardinal Dolan said the priest could go from debauched to defrocked if found guilty of swiping more than $1 million across 10 years.

“I have made the decision to step aside ... while this unfortunate and regrettable situation is investigated,” said Miqueli’s resignation letter, which was read to the faithful at St. Frances de Chantal Church.

Two days earlier, a lawsuit filed by members of St. Frances de Chantal and Miqueli’s former church, St. Francis Cabrini on Roosevelt Island, accused Miqueli of using the looted funds to help finance a perverse master/slave love affair with boy toy Keith Crist.

The priest played the submissive role, even agreeing to drink Crist’s urine, the suit charged. The priest paid his sex partner $1,000 a pop for the rough sex sessions, according to the suit.

Though Miqueli declared his innocence and stressed his cooperation with an archdiocese probe, parishioners had little good to say about the accused pervy pastor.

“It doesn’t seem like it came from his heart,” said Lourdes Leonard, 43, about the letter. “It sounds like somebody wrote it for him. When he speaks at Mass, he speaks harshly.”

A second parishioner said she was disappointed that Miqueli didn’t apologize.

“I believe he’s guilty,” the woman said. “He’s not really a people person. The people in the lawsuit are longtime parishioners. They want what’s best for the church.”

Miqueli, 53, faced new accusations Saturday from his hunky boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend over her arrest seven months ago following a domestic dispute.

The priest “used his collar” to get her busted for drug possession as payback for her emails to church officials about their sexual antics, said Crist’s ex-gal pal Tatyana Gudin.

She told the Daily News the church hierarchy ignored her messages about the priest and his muscle-bound lover. But Dolan said an investigation of Miqueli was ongoing and had yet to find anything amiss.

“I mean, if these allegations are true — they’re awful, they’re vicious, they’re mean,” said the cardinal. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of it. But right now, we’ve done our best looking into it and haven’t found any fire.”

The lawsuit charged Miqueli with stealing money donated to fix a church pipe organ, taking cash from a parish thriftshop and mishandling the weekly Sunday donations.

According to the lawsuit, Miqueli paid cash for a $264,000 home near the Jersey Shore in Brick Township — where Crist now lives and tools around town in a new BMW.

Neighbors described a steady stream of male visitors to the house — and its backyard hot tub.