A laicized New Hampshire priest, the former chancellor of the
Manchester diocese, has agreed to undergo mental-health counseling, as a
condition for his release from prison, where he is completing a
four-year term for misappropriating church funds.Edward Arsenault entered a guilty plea in 2014 to charges that he took more than $300,000 from the Manchester diocese.
He reportedly used the money to support a homosexual affair.
The diocese announced last week that Arsenault had been laicized.
Arsenault’s agreement to undergo counseling was ironic because he once served as the chief executive of the St. Luke Institute, the Maryland facility that has provided counseling for many priests charged with sexual abuse.