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	Former Catholic Ct Pastor to Plead Guilty to Obstruction of Justice By Dan Mangan New York Post December 8, 2011 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/former_catholic_pastor_to_plead_R0AsmvWTm59vFMnxnggb1H The former Catholic pastor of a wealthy Connecticut parish -- who resigned in 2007 after spending more than $500,000 in church funds without being able to document the expenditures -- is set to plead guilty to a charge of federal obstruction of justice tomorrow, The Post has learned. The Rev. Michael Moynihan's expected guilty plea is in response to allegations that he mislead federal investigators who were probing the missing money at St. Michael the Archangel parish in Greenwich, Conn., sources said. Moynihan -- who as of several years ago maintained a pricey Manhattan apartment where he lived with the former children's choir director of St. Michael's -- had been a popular leader at the parish for years until his 2007 resignation amid the financial scandal. Moynihan, 58, is scheduled to appear tomorrow afternoon in New Haven federal court, according to sources. His lawyers, Mark Sherman and Audrey Felsen, both declined to comment tonight. The Bridgeport Diocese -- which oversees St. Michael the Archangel -- in 2007 revealed that had used $185,000 to pay off personal credit-card bills, which included $32,000 for meals, almost $19,000 for travel and another $13,000 spent on equestrian training. Another $44,000 was given to people who did not work for St. Michael the Archangel. The money came from one of two secret bank accounts containing parish funds that Moynihan had set up -- and whose existence he denied after being asked about them during a diocese audit, officials said at the time. In 2008, the diocese suspended Moynihan as a priest and he was fired as a chaplain at SUNY Maritime College in The Bronx after The Post asked church officials if they were aware of the fact that he had lived for years in a one-bedroom Midtown apartment with a handsome television actor and singer named Michael Fawcett, who had been his parish's choir director. Because of that suspension, Moynihan was barred from wearing clerical garb, performing church sacraments other than saying Mass for himself and otherwise acting publicly as a priest. After The Post asked about his living arrangements, the Bridgeport Diocese revealed that before the financial scandal at St. Michael the Archangel, allegations had been made that Moynihan had "an improper relationship" with Fawcett "which were vigorously denied by Father Moynihan and could not be substantiated." "Nonetheless, Father Moynihan was asked to end all affiliation with [Fawcett] to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, so as not to undermine the church's mission," the diocese said in 2008.
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