McLoone was sentenced by Common Pleas Judge Jacquline Carroll Cody to serve five years of court supervised probation, the first nine months of which must be completed on electronic home confinement, or house arrest.
A spokesman for the archdiocese, Ken Gavin, said that the archdiocese would now begin its own look into the matter.
In accepting his guilt, Msgr. McLoone was sentenced to five years of probation, the first nine months of which will be under house arrest.
In the future, according to the sentence, the priest must not hold a position of financial responsibility.
Now that the civil phase of the matter has been concluded, a church investigation into Msgr. McLoone’s conduct will begin under canon law, according to the statement.
Joseph McLoone was dispatched to Downingtown with a tall task: to try to stabilize St. Joseph Parish, a Catholic community left shell-shocked after its pastor was charged with protecting priests who preyed on children across the region.
In time, McLoone, a Philadelphia native, proved to be a popular figure at the church, which, with about 4,700 families, is among the largest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Celibate priests can give more of their time an attention to their parishes and parishioners, while married men have to devote more of their time and attention to their wives and children.
Celibate priests are easier to house and support. Priests normally live in the rectory, a house for priests normally on church grounds. These buildings are not normally set up to house wives and children. Accommodating married priests would mean a larger home for his family. Considering that Catholic dogma opposes artificial contraception, a married priest could have a very large family to support and house.
A former Downingtown pastor pleaded guilty this week to stealing $30,000 from his parish to pad his salary, fund vacations to the Jersey Shore and finance his secret romances.
The conditions for priests and deacon are similar. But clearly, St Paul expected those in Holy Orders to mostly be married.
A celibate priest will normally live on parish grounds, while a married priest might have to live in a house away from the church. This means that the married priest might not be a security guard for his parish.
Monsignor Joseph McLoone on Aug. 21, 2019, who is accused of stealing nearly $100,000 from his parish and spending it on a beach house and men he met on dating apps. Chester County District Attorney's Office via AP. Father Joseph McLoone, 56, was charged with felony theft and other related crimes after allegedly depositing into a personal account ...
Despite the charges, John McCarraher, a parishioner at St. Joseph’s, said McLoone is “ in our prayers constantly .”. “Let all the facts come in and we’ll see what happens,” he told NBC’s local Philadelphia affiliate. Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram.
McLoone replaced Monsignor William Lynn as pastor of the church in 2011 after Lynn was arrested for concealing other priests’ child sex abuse while he worked for the Archdiocese of Pennsylvania.
McLoone later resigned and a new pastor, Rev. Stephen Leva, was named in August 2018.
Gwen Aviles is a trending news and culture reporter for NBC News.
In addition to pocketing the All Souls’ collection each year, along with other donations addressed to St. Joseph’s, the district attorney’s office also said McLoone doubled the stipend he collected for saying each mass and performing weddings and funerals.
Father Joseph McLoone, a Downingtown resident, allegedly stole close to $100,000 and sent some of the money via Square to men he met on Grindr. https://t.co/T4y07gGcdG
Bevilacqua was the first Archbishop in the US to call for a ban of "active homosexuals" from the priesthood. Obviously his orders were taken by the seminaries with a grain of salt, and many slipped through before his edict.
Saint Joseph parishioners called "what's going on" as "sad" and "terrible." One said, "I won't leave Jesus for Judas."
McLoone has been charged with 18 counts, including multiple counts of felony theft, for which he is facing jail time. He is currently out on bail and remains on administrative leave. McLoone replaced Msgr. William Lynn, who was indicted and arrested for covering up clergy sex abuse.
McLoone had been under police investigation for the past year and under an internal investigation by the archdiocese of Philadelphia since 2017.
While commandments and confession are not matters of law, Chester County's District Attorney decried the moral failure the case represented. District Attorney Deb Ryan said, "This was a disgraceful violation of the trust of the members of St. Joseph's Church for his personal gain."
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said it learned in early 2018 that then-Monsignor McLoone had established a bank account in the name of the parish that was not on the parish books.