Speaking of abstinence - Catholic priest embezzles 1.5 million from parish and hired gay escorts

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Rev. Kevin J. Gray, 64

Father Kevin J. Gray is under arrest in Connecticut for embezzling $1.3M from his parish, money he allegedly spent on luxury vacations and lavishly appointed rentboys. Rev. Kevin J. Gray, 64, was charged today with first-degree larceny. Police said he used church funds to pay for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts. Gray turned himself in to authorities this morning and is scheduled to be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court today. Gray was placed on medical leave by Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell on April 15.

In March of this year, Gray presided over 40 couples (photo below) as they renewed their opposite marriage vows in a ceremony created by the Hartford Archdiocese's anti-gay Family Life Office. In January, the Hartford Archdiocese endorsed the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration, which calls on Christians to disobey all LGBT rights laws. The Hartford Archdiocese has also denounced same-sex marriage in DC and in April they claimed that out of all child molestation cases, "less than two per cent [are committed], allegedly, by Catholic clergy," therefore the problem is "societal" and not theirs.*

What's not mentioned in this article, Sacred Heart parish, where Fr. Gray pastored, is an extremely poor parish in a poor city. But what ironically sent up a red flag up was Gray's theft of the "cathedraticum" (which is the annual assessment made by the archdiocese of each parish to support central operations). Poorer parishes tend to be more easily victimized by their priests because of the inherent culture, with fewer safeguards (e.g. qualified personnel on parish councils to review the books, etc) to prevent such skimming.



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* If anyone is interested in losing their lunch: check out the entire document here. It makes New York archbishop Timothy Dolan's defense of Pope Benedict look tame which Matt Tiabbi correctly stated was a "incredibly pompous and self-pitying rant [and] is some of the most depraved horseshit I’ve ever seen on the Internet, which is saying a lot. But I almost couldn’t believe my eyes as I read through Dolan’s retort and it dawned on me that he was actually going to use the “We weren’t the only child molesters!” excuse. Dolan must have very roomy man-robes, because it seems to me you’d need a set of balls like two moons of Jupiter to say such a thing in public and expect it to fly."