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	Priest Tells How He Took Millions from the Church Collection Plate By Jason O'Brien Irish Independent [Florida] October 12, 2006 http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1703678&issue_id=14749 One of the two Irish priests accused of stealing $8.7m (€6.9m) from a church in Florida has admitted he never put a cent from the church plate collection into a church bank account. Fr John Skehan, originally from Johnstown in Kilkenny, instead pocketed between $1,000 and $3,000 per week from the plate. The 79-year-old served at the Catholic Church in Delray Beach, north of Miami, for 40 years. According to American police reports, the priest was in a confessing mood when he was arrested at Palm Beach International Airport after a holiday in Ireland last month. He told detectives that he "absolutely misappropriated" a "mountain of money" from the church. The money was put into slush funds, much of it coming straight from the collection plate. He deserved the money, he said, because the diocese was cheap and never paid for his education. Fr Skehan is accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on holiday houses, luxury travel, rare coins and secret girlfriends. The unfolding scandal at St Vincent Ferrer Church in Delray Beach has continued to make headline news across the US for over a fortnight. Fr Skehan is currently free on bail of $40,000 but revelations about his spending continue to emerge. The other priest, Fr Francis Guinan from outside Birr in Offaly, remains on the run in Australia, but the American authorities have been in contact with his solicitor, David Roth. It is reported that Fr Guinan will hand himself in on October 27, when he returns from his holiday cruise. It is thought that his extended holiday included some time in Ireland. Fr Guinan took over the running of St Vincent's three years ago, and Fr Skehan has told police that the Offaly priest took over the slush funds. He added that what Guinan did with the money "was his business". But Fr Skehan was at pains to point out all the good deeds he himself had done for his parishioners. At one stage, he told detectives that he planned to leave $4m from a trust fund to St Vincent's in his will. Later he said that there was $2.7m in another trust fund that he was going to give to St Vincent's when he retired. The detectives pointed out that he had been retired for three years. Fr Skehan said he had told the church staff to create two sets of books to protect the actual amount of offertory money from the diocese because he was concerned it would take money from "his" church Among other revelations that have left the St Vincent's congregation shaking their head in disbelief is that the two priests formed a company with another Irish priest to invest hundreds of thousands into a failed mortgage scheme. And Fr Skehan offered to return $300,000 in rare coins he had secreted in a safe. But Fr Thomas Skindeleski, who took over the parish when Fr Guinan was dismissed last year, has offered some support to his two predecessors. "I am not trying to minimise any of the wrongdoing that took place, nor cast judgment, either. But so much good was done with many of the 'misappropriated' funds that this cannot be overlooked."
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