Conn. priest: Bishop wanted to send me to the nuns

[August 04, 2009]  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A former priest claims a bishop who played a leading national role in responding to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal threatened to send him to live with nuns after he hired a private investigator to look into his pastor.

The pastor, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, later pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge and was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien to support a luxurious lifestyle.

The priest who hired the investigator the year before, the Rev. Michael Madden, made the claim about the threat of being sent to live with nuns in a deposition for a lawsuit by the church's bookkeeper, who says she was harassed and threatened for exposing Fay's embezzlement.

Madden was asked in the deposition in June for bookkeeper Bethany D'Erario's lawsuit if church officials told him they were going to send him to a nunnery.

"Nunnery is probably not the word, but, yes, the bishop was going to pull me out of the parish that day just as I thought and send me to live with nuns," Madden said, according to the deposition, which was filed Monday in Waterbury Superior Court.

Asked if that was a punishment, Madden said, "It certainly was."

An attorney for the church on Monday denied that Bishop William Lori had threatened to punish Madden like that.

"At no time did Bishop Lori ever threaten to send Mr. Madden to live with nuns," attorney Daniel Schwartz said. "That is not an accurate description of their conversation."

D'Erario's attorney, Mark Sherman, said Monday he plans to call Lori, who served on a national committee to respond to the sexual abuse crisis that rocked the Catholic Church beginning in 2002, as a witness. He said the church had treated Fay better than it treated his client and Madden, who quit the priesthood.

"The only motive Beth and Mike Madden had in blowing the whistle was to stop Father Fay's embezzlement," Sherman said. "As a thank you gift, the church and diocese cut her health benefits, slandered her name and did everything they could to push her out the door."

Madden initially defended his hiring of the investigator at a Mass in 2006, saying he was "sorry and angry that the diocese failed to come to my rescue when there were red flags waving everywhere." Later that day, the diocese issued a letter from Madden in which he wrote that he made "a huge mistake" in hiring the investigator, apologized and defended the diocese's handling of the matter.

Schwartz, the church's attorney, said Madden hired the investigator after he found out church officials were investigating Fay. He also said Madden was "less than truthful" with the bishop and other church officials when he initially was asked if he had hired the investigator.

Lori was grilled over his handling of the incident by parishioners who supported Madden. Some of those supporters said they suspected the letter signed by Madden was coerced.

A church spokesman in 2006 denied the letter was coerced, insisting Madden wrote it.

But Madden said in the court papers that church officials gave him a letter of apology to sign for hiring the investigator and that he signed it because he felt he had "little choice." His attorney declined to comment Monday.

Lori said at the time he was "deeply saddened" by the developments surrounding Madden.

"They have cast a shadow on all the hard work the diocese has done to be open and honest with the parish family of St. John's about this extremely difficult situation," Lori said.

[Associated Press; By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.