Darien Parish Subdued after Death of Disgraced Priest, by Devon Lash, The Advocate, August 23, 2009

Darien Parish Subdued after Death of Disgraced Priest

By Devon Lash
The Advocate
August 23, 2009

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_13189886?source=most_viewed

STAMFORD — The death of the priest who stole a million dollars from a Darien church should end the decade-long saga that engulfed the town's oldest Catholic parish, the senior pastor said Sunday.

"The message is: The father has died, may he rest in peace," said the Monsignor Frank McGrath, the senior pastor of St. John's Roman Catholic Church.

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, the church's former pastor, died Saturday in a federal medical facility in North Carolina after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 58.

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, 56, former pastor of St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Darien, leaves U.S. District Court in New Haven on Sept. 12, 2007.

After a brief trial in 2007, Fay, who led the church from 1991 to 2006, pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud. Records obtained by the Advocate of Stamford showed he used the money to buy expensive items, like designer clothing, Cartier jewelry, limousine rides and Ethan Allen furniture.

Fay had served almost a year of his three-year sentence after four court-sanctioned delays for medical care.

The parishioners reacted with "sorrow and soberness about the event" after they learned of Fay's death at a Saturday Mass, McGrath said.

"Most people are looking forward to moving on," he said. "It was a great shock spiritually and people were inundated with so much media information."

Many parishioners declined to discuss the priest's tenure and its aftermath, which brought a barrage of media coverage and a lawsuit against the church and the archdiocese.

The church's former bookkeeper, Bethany D'Erario, filed a suit claiming that the church and the diocese created a hostile work environment that forced her to resign after she hired a private investigator to look into of Fay's suspicious financial activity in 2006. Last week, a state Superior Court judge denied a motion to dismiss the case.

Other parishioners are grieving for the man who was the church's spiritual shepherd for 15 years, despite the circumstances surrounding his retirement, McGrath said.

The tumult that gripped the parish also brought a consequence that few expected, the senior pastor and his parishioners said.

"The parish has strengthened in many ways," McGrath said. "They pulled together and thought about what's fundamental and basic."

Ken Byrne, parish council member and its former president, said the investigation prompted a "reawakening in the church."

"It turned what might have been a complacency to a much more thriving and active congregation," Byrne, a Darien resident, said. "There isn't a way I can look at this that I haven't seen a beneficial outcome."

William Rowe, a former church deacon and a lifelong Darien resident, said now the parishioners can begin the process of moving past the difficult chapter in their church's history.

"What will it take to have final closure? That I don't know," Rowe said.

Staff Writer Devon Lash can be reached at 203-964-2242 or devon.lash@scni.com