A disgraced Archdiocese of New York priest who was expelled from public ministry after being accused of stealing parish funds to pay his homosexual S&M ‘master’ has been found dead at his New Jersey home.
Father Peter Miquelli had resigned as pastor of St. Francis de Chantal Church in Throggs Neck, New York in 2015, after his parishioners accused the priest of more than 20 years of a disturbing pattern of theft of parish funds. In a lawsuit filed against Miquelli by his own parishioners, the pastor was accused of stealing money from church collection and donation funds to pay his gay prostitute ‘master,’ bodybuilder Keith Crist.
An ex-girlfriend of Crist would later publicize what she alleges was a wide variety of degenerate behavior between the two men, with Miquelli engaging in a wide variety of bizarre sexual practices
The Brick, New Jersey Police Department and the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Friday with Catholic watchdog organization Church Militant that Miquelli had been found dead at his Brick home. No explanation or cause of death has been publicly announced, although an autopsy is currently planned. Church Militant was first alerted to Miquelli’s death from a memo addressed to all Archdiocese of New York clergy from Vicar General Msgr. Joseph LaMorte, a high-ranking Archdiocese official serving under Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Recent reports had indicated that Miquelli was undergoing proceedings that would strip him of the title of a Catholic priest.
Miquelli had brought great discredit upon the Archdiocese of New York, and his abrupt death before the formal laicization proceedings that were scheduled raises more questions than answers. Some have suggested that the de facto church trial proceedings would shed light on the presence of a broader homosexual network within the ranks of the American Catholic clergy, a development that is now impossible.