(Refresher: In the Darien case, a parish pastor was suspected of financial hijinks by the parish bookkeeper and parochial vicar. They hired a private investigator, after the diocese did nothing. The PI revealed much. The parochial vicar was disciplined by the diocese. And so it goes. The NYTimes did a summary piece of the case last week, which tmatt critiques here.)
In December 1996, Monsignor Charles Stubbs, then pastor of St. Mary’s, a wealthy parish in downtown Greenwich, retired, citing health reasons. There was a hint in the press about financial impropriety, but the diocese provided no details.
Seven months after Stubbs resigned from St. Mary’s, then-Bridgeport Bishop Edward Egan, now cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York, made Stubbs assistant pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown, according to published reports.
Two months after that, in September 1997, a complaint of sexual misconduct from the 1980s was brought against Stubbs. After Stubbs admitted molesting a boy, Egan removed him from St. Rose and defrocked him, it was reported at the time.
The question about missing money did not resurface. But, according to sources familiar with the case, Stubbs’ questionable spending of church money amounted to half a million dollars. Some estimates are more than twice that. Stubbs was pastor of St. Mary’s for five years.
Egan has never said what he knew about the money.
Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said the cardinal recalls little about the Stubbs matter and suggested contacting the Diocese of Bridgeport for information.
"It has been 10 years since this came up. Precise details and sequence of events people here can’t be 100 percent sure of," Zwilling said. "The cardinal can’t be completely sure exactly what happened, other than, when they learned of this, Stubbs was removed immediately from the parish. A new priest was appointed then and by all accounts is doing a very good job. The insurance company certainly was notified as was the policy and procedure at the time."
After Egan defrocked Stubbs, the diocese would not reveal his whereabouts. Three months ago, the Connecticut Post reported that Stubbs was living in a New York state home owned by Anthony Cernera, president of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Telephone messages left yesterday at the house in New York and at Cernera’s home in Fairfield were not returned.
The Diocese of Bridgeport still will not discuss the Stubbs case.
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