Concord: Pope Francis has dismissed a Catholic priest in the United States who was convicted of stealing 300,000 dollars from a hospital, a bishop and a deceased priest’s estate.
Monsignor Edward Arsenault pleaded guilty to three theft charges in 2014 and is serving a jail sentence.
The Diocese of Manchester on April 7said that Father Arsenault no longer has “faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest.” He was removed from priesthood on February 28.
Prosecutors said Arsenault billed the church for lavish meals and travel for himself and often a male partner.
He was convicted of writing checks from the dead priest’s estate to himself and his brother and billing a hospital US$250 an hour for consulting work he never did.
“Dismissing a priest from the clerical state is very serious and taken very seriously by the Holy See,” said Father Georges de Laire, the diocese’s vicar for canonical affairs, who conveyed the decision to Arsenault on April 6.
“It is not a decision that is reached lightly as it implies pain for the former cleric and those who may have been affected by him,” he said.
The dismissed priest could not be reached for comment.
Arsenault held senior positions in the New Hampshire diocese from 1999 to 2009. He had been the top lieutenant for then-Bishop John McCormack, handling both a clergy sexual abuse crisis in New Hampshire and orchestrating the church’s new child protection policies.
In 2009, Father Arsenault became president and CEO of Saint Luke Institute in Maryland. He resigned in 2013 as allegations arose over the misuse of church funds.
The investigation did not involve Saint Luke, a prominent education and counseling center based in Silver Spring, Maryland, with sites in other parts of the United States and in Britain. The center treats priests with a range of mental illnesses and has played a key role in addressing the problem of sexually abusive clergy.