GREENWICH, Conn., Feb. 1 — The Rev. Michael R. Moynihan’s taste for the good life was an open secret.
To book a trip to the Breakers, a luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in the late 1990s, Father Moynihan reserved two first-class plane tickets and a room through a local travel agent. He cruised the Long Island Sound in a $200,000 yacht and the streets of Greenwich in a $59,000 black Infiniti sedan. Employees at expensive restaurants knew him by name.
Until Jan. 19 — when Father Moynihan was forced to resign as pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church after an investigation found that he had maintained two secret bank accounts with church funds and could not document how he had spent more than $500,000 — few parishioners or his superiors in the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese openly questioned whether the priest should indulge in such luxuries or how he paid for them.
In fact, many congregants in the wealthy parish — including more than 100 who took out a half-page ad on Sunday in a local newspaper expressing their support for him — say his good works, not his good taste, are what matters.
“What he drives, what he yachts in, that’s not what I’m concerned about,” said Nigel Ekern, a Darien resident who was married by Father Moynihan and attended St. Michael’s for several years. “Who cares?
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By MATTHEW J. MALONE
Published: February 2, 2007
In July, the F.B.I. alerted the diocese to the existence of one bank account maintained by Father Moynihan with $1.4 million. Federal officials declined to say Thursday whether the priest was under investigation.
Father Moynihan signed a letter in August saying that he had disclosed the existence of all accounts. But in December, the diocese discovered a second account — whose balance is still being determined — leading Bishop William Lori to ask that Father Moynihan resign from St. Michael’s.
The diocese still insists it does not know yet how Father Moynihan supported his extravagant lifestyle. For now, he remains a priest in good standing, and the diocese says he will be reassigned, although to a post without any financial oversight.
