‘Sex slave’ priest swears: ‘I kept my vow of chastity’

By Dean Balsamini
New York Post
February 14, 2016

http://nypost.com/2016/02/14/priest-denies-sex-master-affair-i-kept-my-vow-of-chastity/

Rev. Peter Miqueli​​ (right) and his "sex master" Keith Crist

Father Miqueli’s alleged sex “master” Keith Crist

Alleged S&M priest Peter Miqueli never broke his vow of celibacy and is a “man of faith” who wants to return to the altar, his attorney said.

The Catholic cleric — who resigned as pastor of his Bronx church after The Post revealed that he was accused of pilfering $1 million in parish funds to pay for bondage sessions with a slave master — denies he engaged in kinky sex or stole any money, said lawyer James Pascarella.

“Absolutely no theft. The sexual allegations are completely untrue,” Pascarella said. “He loves what he does, and he wants to be a priest . . . He’s never violated his vows.”

The 52-year-old priest is being smeared by “unreliable sources” and a “small group of parishioners who don’t care for him,” Pascarella said.

Miqueli “knows” Keith Crist, the 41-year-old hardbody alleged to have been his slave master, but “it’s not a sexual relationship,” the lawyer said.

Asked to describe the relationship, Pascarella confessed, “I don’t know. I didn’t ask him.”

A lawsuit accuses the priest of stealing more than $1 million from his parish, St. Frances de Chantal Church in Throggs Neck, and pocketing donations earmarked for a new pipe organ at his previous parish, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini on Roosevelt Island.

“That’s completely false. He never stole any money,” Pascarella said.

Crist’s scorned girlfriend, Tatyana Gudin, 45, claimed that the priest spent some of the ill-gotten gains on Crist’s rent and on $1,000-a-pop bondage-and-discipline sessions that she said included Miqueli drinking Crist’s urine.

She also claimed the two men shot up painkillers and popped the drug ecstasy.

“It’s a disturbing allegation. Father Miqueli has never taken any illegal drugs. He’s never bought illegal drugs,” Pascarella said.

Asked how a priest with an annual salary of $30,000 could afford a $50,000 Lexus convertible, an SUV and a house on the Jersey Shore, Pascarella said only: “That’s his money. He didn’t steal money. He never stole money.”

Miqueli’s neighbors in Brick, NJ, say that they have seen Crist visiting the priest since the scandal broke and that the men have “no shame.”

But Pascarella insisted that Crist hasn’t been to the house.

The New York Archdiocese said it had not substantiated allegations that Miqueli stole church funds and turned the findings of its probe over to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, which was still investigating.

Pascarella predicted Miqueli would soon be restored to the good graces of the church and resume his priestly duties.

“He did nothing wrong,” the lawyer said. “Our expectation is that he will be assigned somewhere else.”