CANADA
24 Hours Vancouver
By Marlo Cameron, QMI Agency
OTTAWA — The Archdiocese of Ottawa has promised greater controls over the financial administration of parishes following criminal charges against a former local priest.
On Tuesday evening, police announced Joe LeClair, 55, has been charged with one count each of theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, breach of trust and laundering the proceeds of crime. The charges come after an investigation into the financial administration of Blessed Sacrament Parish. LeClair was formerly the parish priest at Blessed Sacrament Church.
“Given the many people that Fr. LeClair has assisted as well as the several parishes which he has pastored during his 25 years of ministry, today is a sad day for our local church in Ottawa,” Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa, said in a release. “Many people, in our Catholic community and beyond, will be hurt and disappointed by this news. The events concerning Fr. LeClair which have come to light over the past year have obliged us to review our expectations of priests, as well as our care of them.”
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