Conn. priest who hired investigator claims bishop threatened to send him to live with nuns

Conn. whistle-blow priest says bishop scolded him

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Connecticut priest claims a bishop who played a leading national role in responding to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal threatened to send him to live with nuns after he hired a private investigator to look into his pastor.

The pastor, the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, pleaded guilty to a fraud charge and was sentenced in 2007 to three years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien.

The priest who hired the investigator the year before was the Rev. Michael Madden.

An attorney for the church denies Bishop William Lori threatened to send Madden to live with nuns before he quit the priesthood.

Madden made the claim in a recent deposition for a lawsuit by the church bookkeeper, who claims she was harassed and threatened for exposing Fay’s embezzlement.