2 Priests Accused of $8.6-Million Theft in Florida

Retired Msgr. John A. Skehan, 79, was arrested on a grand theft charge Wednesday night at Palm Beach International Airport upon returning from Ireland. He was pastor at St. Vincent for more than 40 years.

"He was very remorseful," Delray Beach Det. Thomas Whatley said. Skehan was in Palm Beach County's jail Thursday in lieu of $400,000 bond.

Skehan's successor at St. Vincent, Father Francis B. Guinan, 63, is being sought on a similar grand theft charge. Police suspect he fled the country, they said Thursday. The charges against the popular priests sent waves of disbelief through South Florida's religious community, including dozens of politically connected parishioners at the Delray Beach church.

St. Vincent's is one of the area's largest and oldest parishes, with 3,000 members, and a who's who of politicians and business leaders. "I am shocked," said Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, whose husband, Kevin, is chairman of the South Florida Water Management District. "[Skehan] married us 26 years ago."

Parishioner June Hefti said "Skehan was the epitome of priesthood." Tears welled in her eyes. "It is incredible."

In a 15-page probable-cause affidavit by Delray Beach police, Skehan and Guinan are accused of skimming cash from weekly church collections to give generous payments to women, invest in real estate, and travel to their native Ireland and resorts.

Skehan used collection plate funds to pay for a Palm Beach County condominium, a $275,000 coin collection, a cottage on the Ireland's scenic Cliffs of Moher and a pub in his hometown of Kilkenny, police allege.

He also made regular cash payments to a woman, described in the affidavit as a "girlfriend," who once worked for him when he was assigned to a church in Hallandale, Fla.

During the summers when other priests were away, one former church employee told police, Skehan "would hide cash from offertories in the ceiling" of his condo, a 16th-floor unit in the oceanfront Connemara on Singer Island. Guinan, who was a pastor at St. Patrick's Church in Palm Beach Gardens before succeeding Skehan at St. Vincent's in September 2003, was described in the affidavit as a gambler who frequented casinos in Las Vegas and the Bahamas, and drew liberally from secret funds over which he had control.