Pennsylvania priest arrested for stealing nearly $100k in Church funds for gay hookups, credit cards

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NEWSCATHOLIC CHURCH, HOMOSEXUALITYTue Aug 27, 2019 - 3:38 pm EST

Pennsylvania priest arrested for stealing nearly $100k in Church funds for gay hookups, credit cards​

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)Lisa Bourne

August 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Pennsylvania priest is accused of stealing almost $100,000 from donations and ministry stipends to fund sex hook-ups with other men and pay off personal credit debt, reports say.

Monsignor Joseph McLoone, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Downingtown in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was arrested on felony theft charges Wednesday, the New York Post reports.

McLoone made 17 separate payments totaling $1,720 to men he met on Grindr through the Square online payment app. Grindr is the world’s largest gay social networking app.

McLoone is also alleged to have doubled his stipend amount for Masses, weddings, and funerals . . .

. . . After establishing the unauthorized “St. Joseph Activity Account” at TD Bank in 2011, the priest then directed donation checks into it over the next six years, stealing a total of $98,405, according to Chester County district attorney chief of staff Charles Gaza.

McLoone is alleged to have withdrawn approximately $46,000 in cash from the clandestine bank account in Ocean City, New Jersey, where he owns a beach house.

One of the “personal relationships” with other men McLoone admitted to involved him deposting $1,200 into the commissary account of an inmate in a New York correctional facility, The Post report said.

The inmate was never a Pennsylvania resident and had no prior connection to St. Joseph.

According to the complaint, McLoone told investigators the inmate, identified in court documents as Brian Miller, lived in New York City and that he’d met him via Grindr for a sexual relationship. . . .
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That parish is a few miles away from my workplace. Msgr. McLoone was removed from there about a year and a half ago after his parish admins found him by accident on some app where adults transfer money to each other and his activity on there looked hinky to them (this was publicly reported in the local news). It sure has taken a long time to build the case.

I felt bad for them because their pastor before McLoone got prosecuted for allegedly engaging in sexual abuse coverups when he worked for the archdiocese, so they got two bad eggs in a row. I hope their current pastor is a good egg.
 
Ouch.

Now it’s in the hands of the authorities.

But I’m heartsore for the parishioners.
My granddad was baptized and buried from that parish.
 
What I’ve seen happen elsewhere is that the diocese has insurance protecting it against such embezzlement by its employees (including priests). Insurance pays the diocese, then if the priest looks like he has any assets, the insurance company sues him. If this priest had his own beach house, the insurance company will probably end up with it. I would think the value of such a beach house would more than offset what he took.
 
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The parish, which is something like the second or third biggest in the archdiocese, looks like it is continuing to plug along okay despite the misdeeds of this pastor and the alleged misdeeds of the one before him. (I say “alleged” because last I looked his case was on appeal.)
 
Assuming he is defrocked and left out on the street to fend for himself with no retirement, as he should be, I doubt there will be much financial recompense to be had anyway.

These men, starting with Bishops, should be forced to endure the same reality that most lay people would have to deal with in this situation. I have no safety net save my own merits.
 
I am also not excusing for one minute what he did, which is awful, but in the grand scheme of cash flow around these parts, assuming that the news report fairly accurately describes the amounts he took, he didn’t take very much money. This parish is located in a well-off area and is not hurting for money. From what I’ve read he also didn’t take from the general collections, just from stipends he was given and from certain special collections throughout the year. He probably figured his little “slush fund” wouldn’t be missed, and apparently it wasn’t missed because he was caught by accident. Somebody working for the parish was opening an account on Square or similar for another purpose and saw him on there giving money to adult men.

So the main damage here is to his soul, the diocese reputation, the trust of the parishioners etc, it’s not so much the amount of money needed to get back.

Unfortunately this is the third priest embezzlement case I’ve heard of around here in the last few years. The other two priests, from the news reports, were feeding non-sexual addictions.
 
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Tis_Bearself . . .
I would think the value of such a beach house would more than offset what he took.
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You might be right Tis, but I am guessing a more detailed asset audit will be undertaken and he will even have more hidden assets (tough to buy ocean front homes with a mere hundred K or on a priest salary. Much less his other spending issues.).

The question then shifts to HOW, could he pay for that “MORE”.

The answer unfortunately probably lies in more thievery from the purse by this betraying priest.

Hopefully he is being spiritually directed by a good priest who will help him repent, and by grace, save his soul.

I don’t want any more of these sexually confused purse-stealing priests to fall into despair or at least an outward apparent despair (as others have in the past).

I want this confused man to go to Heaven. (Which is why I am praying for him.)

Then he himself can help in this audit against himself even from jail (which he deserves) as his “vision” improves.
 
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A Monsignore, yet… tsk tsk. i fear few decent men will enter the priesthood until these types are completely purged, right up to the top ranks.
 
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Cathoholic said:
The question then shifts to HOW, could he pay for that “MORE”.
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Eh, I think if he’d been taking a lot of money it wouldn’t have taken them a year and a half to charge him. They probably went through everything with a fine tooth comb because they only want to have to do this investigation once and make the biggest charge they can make.
 
Tis_Bearself . . .
Eh, I think if he’d been taking a lot of money it wouldn’t have taken them a year and a half to charge him.
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You could be right.

Or maybe someone in the Chancery helped drag their feet on this investigation until it just could not be ignored.

Or something else.

Much of it will come out and it’s important that it does so other Dioceses can observe and help guard against this modus operandi of these confused men who should not have been in the ministerial priesthood to begin with.
 
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