CONNECTICUT
New York Post
By JEANE MacINTOSH in Darien, Conn., and DAN MANGAN in N.Y.
May 19, 2006 -- A Catholic priest at a wealthy Connecticut church swiped hundreds of thousands of dollars in parish funds to lavish on his "very good" male friend - buying him steak dinners, furniture and even a romantic Caribbean cruise where they shared a queen-sized bed, sources said.
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, whose salary was just $28,000 a year, spent $3,000 a week on food and beverages alone, the sources said.
"You name it, he spent our money on it," said an outraged parishioner at St. John Catholic Church in Darien, where the 55-year-old Fay had been pastor since 1991.
Public records show that Fay bought a $450,000 oceanfront condo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last year with his male friend - Philadelphia wedding planner Cliff Martell Fantini - and that the two well-coifed men share a pied-a-terre studio in a ritzy apartment building on Manhattan's East Side.