Priest ‘stole to pay for gay sex’

A priest of the Archdiocese of New York is accused of stealing as much as US$1 million (£666,000) from his parish to pay for sex with a male prostitute, writes Michael Sean Winters. Parishioners at St Frances de Chantal parish filed a lawsuit against Fr Peter Miqueli, accusing him of embezzlement and detailing his alleged sordid sexual conduct.

The male prostitute’s former girlfriend told the New York Post that she emailed New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan earlier this year, with similar allegations of Fr Miqueli’s behaviour with her ex-partner including sadomasochistic encounters. A spokesman for the archdiocese said that audits of the parish finances had not yet discovered evidence of embezzlement, but the entire situation was under investigation. Fr Miqueli announced he was resigning as church pastor but denied the allegations.