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	Theft Charge Bedevils Priest's Irish Hometown By Don Melvin Palm Beach Post [Ireland] October 2, 2006 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/world/epaper/2006/10/02/m1a_IRELAND_1002.html At Sunday morning Mass in this small Irish town, the Rev. Frank Maher again intoned the Lord's Prayer, the words smooth as polished stones from centuries of use. But this Sunday, in this town, and especially in this church, they carried an unusual poignancy. "And lead us not into temptation," Maher intoned, "but deliver us from evil...." Many who mouthed the words along with the priest were wondering whether it was even remotely possible that one of their own — a quiet, unassuming priest who never forgot his roots — could himself have been led deep into temptation. But that is what police in South Florida say: that the Rev. John Skehan, 79, and another priest, the Rev. Francis Guinan, 63, misappropriated $8.6 million in church money over more than four decades — taking cash from collection plates to pamper girlfriends, travel the world and buy real estate. "It's hard to believe," said Tommy Sharkey, the elderly owner of a newsstand and convenience store in Johnstown, who has known Skehan all his life. "He was a nice guy." Skehan was born in this small, God-fearing town. The main street consists of about a half-mile of road lined by a few shops. The 2002 census lists the population as 517. Even though that figure includes the surrounding area, it said something about the place that 200 worshippers filled St. Kieran's Church for one of two Masses on Sunday morning. Skehan went to school here, and later to a seminary in Kilkenny, just 20 miles down the road. And it was in this very church 54 years ago that the newly ordained Rev. Skehan celebrated his first Mass. He still has relatives in this area: a sister and two brothers, Martin and Paul, retired small cattle farmers who live a couple of miles out of town. "The family would be very highly regarded here," said Sean Connolly, a retired teacher, after Mass. Through his more than four decades as a priest in Florida, Skehan always remembered where he was from. He returned virtually every year, stayed with his sister and drove the family car. "People around here would have seen him as quite a normal man," the Rev. Maher said. "There was certainly nothing lavish." "I'd say kind of shy and retiring," Connolly added. The police report made public after Skehan's arrest Wednesday quoted a witness, whose name was blacked out, saying Skehan owned a pub in Kilkenny as well as a cottage on the Cliffs of Moher, on Ireland's west coast. But people in Johnstown said they know nothing of the priest's owning a pub, and they doubt it is true. Skehan's one passion from boyhood onward, by all accounts, was hurling, the Gaelic stick-and-ball game that is Ireland's national pastime. He was a strong supporter of the Johnstown team, the Fenian's Hurling Club. "He'd never go back to the States until after the all-Ireland hurling match," Maher said. He was here for this year's match Sept. 17 and was walking the streets of Johnstown as recently as last week. He gave no indication that something was amiss. "There was no hint of anything at all," Maher said. Delray Beach police arrested him at Palm Beach International Airport on Wednesday after his return from Ireland. People in Johnstown feel some shame that one of their own could have committed such crimes. News of the accusations was carried by national newspapers in Ireland under sometimes lurid headlines. "Shock as Irish priests accused of $8.6m theft," said the Sunday Independent. "FLASH PRIESTS WHO FLEECED THEIR FLOCK," blared the Sunday World, which published photos of Guinan's and Skehan's properties in Juno Beach, Singer Island and Delray Beach. Asked Sunday whether they knew Skehan, a number of Johnstown residents answered "no" with a sharpness that strained credulity. Skehan's family was not talking, either. His two brothers live up a country lane lined by hedges and old stone walls and flanked by bright green hills. The yellow and white farm complex includes living quarters, car garages and a courtyard in which vehicles can turn around. It is not lavish by any means, but it is substantial, perhaps reflecting a lifetime of hard work. On Sunday, the outer gate was padlocked, leaving a visitor no way to knock. Repeated phone calls drew only busy signals. The Catholic Church has been devastated by scandals in recent years — many of a sexual, rather than financial, nature — that have diminished the church's standing in this heavily Catholic country. Maher said he felt pain at hearing still more allegations made against Irish priests. But he cautioned that the full truth may not have been told yet. "All we know is what we read in the papers," he said. "And our papers are probably just a hash of what's been in the American papers. And that's a hash of the police reports. We're just waiting to see what happens."
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