By Stacey Stowe
The New York Times
May 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/nyregion/19priest.html?_r=1
&ex=1148184000&en=6f63f3005f1ac57d&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
DARIEN, Conn., May 18 — With his condominium near the beach, Upper East Side apartment and penchant for Barbour jackets, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay had much in common with his neighbors here in one of the nation's most affluent communities, according to a private investigator connected with St. John Roman Catholic Church. But when Father Fay could not pay for his lifestyle on his priest's salary, the investigator said, he dipped into the collection plate and ran up the church credit card for more than $200,000.
Church officials said they requested and received the resignation of Father Fay, 55, as pastor on Wednesday based on an internal investigation of the church's finances. No criminal charges have been filed against Father Fay, but inquiries have been started by the United States attorney's office in Connecticut and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.
Father Fay has been stripped of his public authority to function as a priest but will continue to receive his benefits and a "modest living allowance" while he is under investigation, said Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the diocese.
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The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, now 55, in Darien, Conn., in 1994. Photo by Tom Ryan/The Advocate |
The Rev. Michael J. Madden, the parochial vicar of St. John, is now the church's acting administrator.
Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, who has notified federal authorities of possible financial wrongdoing at the Darien church, met with members of the St. John parish council and parish finance council on Wednesday to inform them of the resignation and investigations, Mr. McAleer said.
"Some were very sad," he said, "and others expressed surprise."
On Thursday, the aluminum-sided parish house where Father Fay lived was shuttered, its Venetian blinds sealed. A woman who answered the door referred questions to the Bridgeport Diocese, and a man outside who identified himself as the parish's youth minister said that Father Fay, who could not be reached for comment, was no longer living there.
Mr. McAleer said the diocese was in contact with Father Fay but would not disclose where he was living.
Public records show that Father Fay owns a condominium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with Clifford A. Fantini, who is also known as Cliff Martell. Mr. Fantini is identified on a bridal industry Web site as a fashion show director and producer who has worked with Bride's Magazine and the designer Oleg Cassini.
Last year, Father Fay and Mr. Fantini paid $449,000 for the Florida property. Public records also show that both men have lived at an apartment on East 63rd Street in Manhattan.
Mr. Fantini, reached at his home in Philadelphia on Thursday, expressed concern for Father Fay, whom he described as a "most loyal friend and wonderful human being," before declining to comment further.
Vito Colucci Jr., a private investigator and a former Stamford police detective, said that Father Fay earned about $28,000 a year. Mr. Colucci, who said he was hired to investigate Father Fay by someone "connected to the church" but not the diocese, said a review that he conducted of church financial records for the past two and a half years revealed that Father Fay had been taking money from the collection plate and charging expenses to the church credit cards totaling at least $200,000.
These expenses included $200 dinner tabs at restaurants in New York, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, along with airline tickets, limousine rides, cruises and a $2,600 Cartier ring, Mr. Colucci said.
"He had free rein there, and nobody questioned him," Mr. Colucci said. "People are putting their money in the collection plate and look where it's going."
The diocese requires yearly financial reports from each parish, according to Mr. McAleer, who said the most recent diocesan review revealed financial irregularities that the bishop reported to federal authorities. Mr. McAleer could not recall the date of that review.
Father Fay was ordained in 1978, according to information from the diocese. Born in Englewood, N.J., he earned a degree from Manhattan College and served at Connecticut parishes in Newtown, Greenwich and New Canaan before becoming pastor of St. John in 1991. His last assignment before St. John was at St. Aloysius Church in New Canaan; on Thursday, the monsignor from that church visited St. John.
In 2002, as Roman Catholic churches around the nation were struggling with child sex-abuse cases, Father Fay was appointed to the Sexual Misconduct Review Board of the Diocese of Bridgeport, a board whose members included a former state's attorney and a police detective.
On Thursday, mothers and nannies who were collecting toddlers from the St. John nursery school shook their heads and spoke briefly but reluctantly about Father Fay's resignation.
"He baptized my son," said one woman, a St. John parishioner for four years, who was walking two boys to her car. "He was pretty well-turned-out for a priest. He had one of those Barbour jackets and he always looked sharp."
Like several parishioners, the woman would not provide her name, citing the investigation. Others described the priest as "subdued" when presiding over a Mass.
Miriam Moran, a longtime parishioner and donor to the church, expressed sadness at the developments. "I'm heartbroken," she said. "I'm shocked. He was the nicest guy."
If the allegations against Father Fay are true, he will join two other priests in the region who used church money to finance less-than-modest lifestyles.
Last year, the Rev. William Naughton, pastor of Resurrection Parish Roman Catholic Church in Randolph, N.J., stole $360,000 from the church. In 2004, the Rev. Joseph Hughes, pastor of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Rumson, N.J., raided church coffers of more than $2 million to buy luxuries like a BMW and vacations in Cancun and the Bahamas.
Alain Delaqueriere contributed reporting for this article.
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