Former pastor to stand trial on theft charges
Joseph Mcloone, former pastor at St. Joseph’s in Downingtown, is alleged to have opened a ‘secret account.’
EAST CALN >> Within months of taking over as parochial administrator at St. Joseph’s Church in 2011, Monsignor Joseph McLoone had opened a “secret account” at a local bank, that only he had signing authority over, and began funneling money into it from various sources within the church parish to pay for personal expenses, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in his theft case Wednesday.
Over the next several years, McLoone deposited more than $125,000 into the bank account, which was listed in the name of St. Joseph’s Church but which no one in the church’s hierarchy knew of. Of that amount, more than $98,000 was stolen from church resources, the lead investigators in the case testified.
He used the money from the “activity account” to make purchases on his own behalf, including spending money on men he had met on-line and with whom he had begun sexual relationships with, Chester County Detective Benjamin Martin said.
“He specifically opened the account,” to deposit the money he was taking without authorization from the church finance council or the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, his employer, Martin told District Judge Jeffrey Valocchi during the hourlong hearing. A significant portion of it coming from so-called “All Souls” donations from parishioners and so-called stipends for saying masses and overseeing weddings and funerals.
“He knew they (parish priests) were not supposed to take” All Souls donations for themselves, Martin said under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Rice, who is prosecuting the case against McLoone. “It was prohibited by archdiocese policy. He was essentially giving himself a raise” beyond the $26,000 he was paid to oversee the Downingtown parish.
Martin said that McLoone admitted as much to him in a series of interviews in 2018 after he had been removed from his post at St. Joseph’s by the archdiocese for his financial wrongdoings and his inappropriate relationships with adult men.
“The defendant made the statement to me that he knew he wasn’t allowed to take the All Souls money,” Martin said.
At the end of the hearing, the former chief pastor at St. Joseph’s was ordered held for trial on all charges, that could see him face prison should he be convicted in Common Pleas Court.
“It comes down to transparency,” said Valocchi in ordering the case held for trial. No matter what he spent the money on — whether it was for his own expenses or good deeds — he had not told anyone about the activity account or his transfers into it until he was confronted by church investigators.
McLoone did not testify at the proceeding, which marks the formal start of the criminal case against him. The monsignor is charged with multiple counts of theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, and dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity — a first-degree felony and the most serious of the charges against him.
McLoone, 56, whose address is listed on the criminal complaint against him as Downingtown but who is reportedly living with family in Philadelphia and who also owns a home in Ocean City, N.J. He did not testify at the proceeding, which marks the formal start of the criminal case against him, and pleaded not guilty. He sat unemotionally at the defense table between his two attorneys during the hearing, dressed in a black-andwhite striped polo shirt, black pants, and rimless glasses.
Afterwards, one of his attorneys, Melissa McCarthy of West Chester, issued the following statement on his behalf.
“People who know me know who I am,” McLoone said. “I have cooperated fully from the beginning and I look forward to the truth coming out.”
In cross-examining Martin during the hearing, McCafferty and co-counsel Arik Benari suggested that McLoone had done nothing wrong because the parishioners who donated money to the church to have their loved ones honored on All Souls Day, or who asked for Masses to be said for their family or friends, had gotten what they asked for.
“If a mass was said for the deceased, then haven’t they got their money’s worth?” Benari asked Martin. Who then was the victim in the case?
The suggestion seemed to rankle Martin.
“The victims in the case are the people in the church who were donating money to honor their family members, and not to the defendant of the defendant’s boyfriends and not to help pay his credit cards,” Martin said pointedly.
Martin said the criminal investigation came after the publication of an newspaper article in the Daily Local News in April 2018 describing how McLoone had been removed from his position as pastor at the church, the largest Roman Catholic Church in Chester County and among the largest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Members of the parish were told McLoone had been placed on administrative leave and resigned his position as leader of the parish weeks before. Questions from parishioners had swirled around the church for some time after he stopped leading services in early 2018.
McLoone was popular with many parishioners, and had been brought in to lead the parish in 2011 by the archdiocese specifically to help calm the roiling waters there caused by the arrest and, later, conviction of Monsignor William Lynn for allegedly protecting priests accused of sexual abuse of children. The conviction eventually was overturned and Lynn awaits retrial.
According to his criminal complaint, Martin said that on Nov. 2, 2011 — coincidentally the first All Soul’s Day when he was pastor at St. Joseph’s — McLoone opened an account at TD Bank which he named the “St. Joseph Activity Account.”
Over the next six years, the defendant diverted approximately $125,000 in donation checks written to the parish into his secret account at TD Bank. The sources of these diverted funds included donations for the use of the church and school by community groups, donations from the congregation related to special collections held during Masses, fees paid to the parish for weddings and funerals by those married at the church or holding funeral services for a loved one, and other gifts made out to St. Joseph’s Parish. Some money from the account was recovered by authorities.
McLoone also used the activity account to take the entirety of the All Souls’ collection each year and convert checks written out to St. Joseph’s into checks made out to himself and others within the parish. The total amount taken out of the All Souls’ collection was $39,543.
In the affidavit, Martin stated that bank records showed McLoone writing checks from the “activity account” into which the stolen All Souls checks had been deposited to other priests at St. Joseph’s. In all, 15 checks totaling $15,345 were written to the priests, who were not identified in the complaint.
In his testimony Wednesday, however, Martin identified at least one of the fellow priests who had benefited from his largesse with the All Souls funds: Msgr. Lynn, the man he replaced.