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Former Lincoln priest, a convicted sex offender, ordered to stop practicing psychology

By Kurt Erickson | kurt.erickson@lee.net

SPRINGFIELD -State regulators have ordered a former Catholic priest and convicted sex offender in Lincoln to stop the unlicensed practice of clinical psychology.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation found Francis A. Benham had been claiming he was a doctor who provides psychotherapy services when he had neither a doctorate degree nor a state license to practice as a clinical psychologist.

Records show Benham had business cards identifying him as a doctor and advertised himself in a local phone directory as a “psychotherapist.”

The new citation, signed by agency director Jay Stewart, is the latest in a series of legal problems the 74-year-old has faced. Benham was arrested in Lincoln in July 2004 on sex charges and was extradited to Maryland where he was convicted of having sex…