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Pope dismisses priest convicted of stealing $300K

Friday, 07 April 2017 5:01 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 07 April 2017 5:01 PM ]

Pope Francis blesses the crowd at the end of a weekly general audience at St Peter's square on April 5, 2017 in Vatican.

Pope Francis has dismissed a Roman Catholic priest from New Hampshire who was convicted of stealing $300,000 from a hospital, a bishop and a deceased priest's estate.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, who served as the face of the church in the state during a sex abuse scandal, pleaded guilty to three theft charges in 2014 and is serving a jail sentence.

The Diocese of Manchester said Friday that Arsenault no longer has "faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest."

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 $250 an hour for consulting work he never did.

(Source: AP)

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