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Former NH Catholic Church Leader Removed from Priesthood

By Pat Grossmith
New Hampshire Union Leader
April 8, 2017

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20170408/NEWS08/170409412/-1/mobile?template=mobileart

Edward J. Arsenault

Edward J. Arsenault III, a former monsignor and the face of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in the early 2000s when it was rocked by a sexual abuse scandal involving priests and children, has been formally dismissed from the priesthood.

On Friday, the diocese announced that Pope Francis has stripped Arsenault of his clerical duties.

“By virtue of this decree, Edward J. Arsenault has no faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest,” the diocese stated. The action also dispenses him “from all obligations subsequent to sacred ordination, including that of celibacy.”

The Rev. Georges de Laire, judicial vicar for the diocese and a canon lawyer, informed Arsenault in person on Thursday of Pope Francis’ decision, which was decreed on Feb. 28. The paperwork first made its way to the Pope’s ambassador in Washington, D.C., and then to the diocese which received it on March 28.

Interviewed Friday, de Laire declined to say how Arsenault reacted to the news.

Arsenault presently is serving a 4- to 20-year prison sentence for embezzling about $300,000 from the Diocese, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and the estate of the late Msgr. John Molan.

According to the Adult Parole Board, Arsenault, who had been incarcerated at the Cheshire County jail, was released with an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts. Ashlyn St. Germain, the board’s executive assistant, was out of the office Friday and an employee said she could not release information concerning Arsenault’s location.

The New Hampshire Union Leader was unable to find contact information for Arsenault and de Laire declined to say where he is living.

When the diocese was rocked by the priest sexual abuse scandal in the early 2000s, Arsenault was the very public face of the New Hampshire church.

As Bishop John McCormack’s right-hand man during the crisis, Arsenault appeared at public forums, answered reporters’ questions and served as the liaison to investigators from the Attorney General’s Office who were looking into the abuse allegations for possible criminal prosecution.

In December 2002, an agreement between the diocese and the Attorney General’s Office gave the prosecutors unprecedented oversight of the diocese’s handling of clergy accused of sexual abuse and its efforts to prevent future abuse.

Arsenault left the diocese in 2009 for a $170,000-a-year position running St. Luke’s Institute in Maryland, a clinic for troubled priests.

Then his own sex scandal broke.

In 2014, Arsenault pleaded guilty to stealing about $300,000 from the diocese, Catholic Medical Center and the estate of the late Msgr. John Molan.

The thefts took place when Arsenault was involved with a gay composer and recording artist on whom he lavished gifts, including trips to San Francisco and New York, expensive dinners, an extended stay hotel and a cellphone.

He created fake invoices of $15,000 from a Boston psychologist, submitting them to the diocese for reimbursement. He never was a patient of the doctor’s and was ordered to repay the legal bills incurred by the doctor as part of the criminal investigation.

Arsenault also owed CMC $185,000 in connection with a $200-an-hour consulting contract he set up with then hospital President Alyson Pitman Giles soon after he left the hospital board in 2009.

Arsenault, in addition to the prison sentence, was ordered to make full restitution.

The process to dismiss Arsenault as a priest began after he was convicted and sentenced, de Laire said. The diocese, he explained, conducted its own independent investigation and then forwarded that file, which specified the crimes (called “delicts” in the church) and contained the diocese’s own set of proofs to support the accusations of embezzlement, to the Vatican. The only person in the Catholic church who can dismiss a priest is the Pope, he explained.

The Congregation for the Clergy, a body within the Roman Curia, oversaw the dismissal process which involved lawyers for both sides exchanging documents and information. The Congregation notified Arsenault of the diocese’s accusations and recommended he obtain a canon lawyer.

The diocese paid for that attorney for Arsenault to ensure he was properly represented, de Laire said. Once that process was completed, the case was sent to a panel of three experts in Rome who reviewed the case. That panel made a recommendation to the Pope who then dismissed Arsenault, according to de Laire.

New Hampshire Sunday News reporter Shawne K. Wickham contributed to this report.

Contact: pgrossmith@unionleader.com

Contact: swickham@unionleader.com

 

 

 

 

 




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