Probe Targets Former Newtown Priest—

Second Roman Catholic Priest Resigns

Amid Investigation

By John Christoffersen

Associated Press

STAMFORD — A priest hired to replace a pastor accused of using church money to pay for a lavish lifestyle with another man has resigned, admitting he was the one who hired a private investigator to look into the pastor.

Bishop William Lori said he agreed to the request Tuesday by the Rev Michael Madden to resign as acting administrator of St John Church in Darien. Madden was appointed last week to replace the Rev Michael Jude Fay in response to suspicions of financial wrongdoing. Fay resigned last week.

Fay served the St Rose parish in Newtown between 1977 and 1986, first for a year as deacon and then as a parish priest.

Vito Colucci, Jr, an investigator based in Stamford, said he documented at least $200,000 in church money Fay spent on limousine rides, dinners at famous restaurants, cruises, and gifts. Local and federal authorities are investigating Fay, who has not been charged.

Madden admitted Tuesday that he and the parish bookkeeper hired the private investigator with their own money even while working with the diocese in connection with its own probe of Fay.

“I’m sorry Father Jude did what he did,” Madden told parishioners Tuesday, according to a copy of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “I’m sorry that the accountant and the finance board were asleep at the switch. And I am sorry and angry that the diocese failed to come to my rescue when there were red flags waving everywhere.”

Madden called the past four years “a living hell” for him. He said the diocese is “ripping mad” at him and the bookkeeper “for what we saw as a prudent effort to protect ourselves.”

“I don’t know what is going to happen to me now, but whatever it is, it will be a welcome relief from the extreme physical and emotional strain I have been suffering,” Madden said. “I simply could not stand behind that altar and look out at you good people, knowing what was being done to you.”

But Madden backed off the comments in a letter to parishioners released later in the day by the diocese.

“The Diocese had no knowledge that I hired an investigator,” Madden wrote in the letter. “In hindsight, I realize I made a huge mistake, which has further complicated matters.

“In my actions and words, I betrayed your trust and the trust of my Bishop, who has been working diligently to deal with the situation at hand and to arrive at the truth of these matters,” he wrote. “I also misled you into doubting that the Diocese is fully engaged in vigorously working for a just and prudent resolution of this matter.”

Madden also apologized.

“At Mass this morning, and in conversations with many of you, I spoke way out of turn and suggested things regarding Bishop William Lori and the Diocese of Bridgeport which were not true or factual, in reference to the investigation of Father Fay’s financial stewardship of our parish,” Madden wrote.

Telephone messages were left for Madden Tuesday.

“The courage he had to do this is incredible,” said Wendy Kleinknecht, a private investigator who worked with Colucci on the probe.

Michael Sherman, attorney for the bookkeeper, identified his client as Bethany Derario.

“Nothing was being done about it,” Sherman said. “It didn’t look like anything was going to be done about it, so they kind of went outside the chain of command, hired a private investigator and told him to look into this and deliver his findings to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”

Lori said he was “deeply saddened” by the latest development.

“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.

Lori appointed the Rev William J. Scheyd, pastor of St Aloysius Parish in New Canaan, to oversee St John Parish. Madden will remain as a parochial vicar at St John.

Veronica Sedita, an 81-year-old parishioner at St John, was stunned by the latest developments.

“Oh my God,” she said. “I don’t know what to think of anything any more. “Everything seemed so nice and happy, well run on the surface.”