Ecclesiastical Court Could Determine Piroli’s Future : Religion: Those familiar with Catholic canon law say that if he chose to fight to remain a priest, he might succeed despite trial.

Father David Piroli, who outraged superiors by claiming he was framed by his senior pastor, may want to stay in the priesthood if his victory in court Friday eventually leads to total vindication on charges of stealing $60,000 in church collections.

“Let’s wait and see what happens,” he said Friday.

Piroli, 37, an assistant pastor in Simi Valley until he fled the country amid scandal in 1992, was acquitted on one count of grand theft Friday. The jury hung 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal on a second theft count, but prosecutors said they may refile that charge.

The verdicts increased the chance that Piroli may emerge free from the criminal justice system, and raised the question of what an ecclesiastical court would then do with him.

Attorneys and priests familiar with Catholic canon law said this week that if Piroli chose to fight to remain a priest, he might succeed. A key element of any church hearing, they said, would be whether Piroli confessed to sins and asked for forgiveness.

“Our business is one of forgiveness, not condemnation,” said Ventura attorney James Farley, a deacon of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a “defender of the bond” in church matrimonial court.

Lawyer David Patrick Callahan, representing the archdiocese in the Piroli case, said church officials might consider defrocking Piroli, an act the church refers to as a “removal of priestly faculties” or being “reduced to the lay state.”

“But there are other things that would be taken into the mix, such as his attitude,” Callahan said. “The church has as one of its main concepts, the consideration of forgiveness and the relationship the priest has with God.

“It’s not like ‘you do the crime, you do the time,’ ” Callahan said.

It would be more complicated if Piroli insisted during a church hearing--as he has during criminal trial--that he has done nothing wrong and is himself a victim.

Beyond the charges of theft, Piroli would have to answer questions about trace amounts of cocaine and $10,000 in cash found in the priest’s car when arrested with a young Mexican national in Hollywood two years ago. Piroli said he had stopped to buy a suitcase for his passenger, who was returning to Mexico to recover from cocaine addiction. A suspicious security guard called police.

Prosecutors have insisted that Piroli skimmed collection money from churches in Simi Valley and Saticoy over six years partly to support a cocaine habit. Piroli testified that he never used cocaine.

At a church hearing, Piroli would also have to explain why his sworn version of conversations with two top church officials after his arrest varies so greatly with the officials’ recollections, Callahan said.

Questions remain about why Piroli had nine bank accounts with deposits of nearly $55,000 when he was arrested in June, 1992, how he could have saved so much on a salary of $350 month, and why churches’ cash collections rose sharply after he left, the archdiocese lawyer said. Piroli testified that he saved most of the banked money from stipends parishioners paid for special services such as marriages.

Callahan said he had never heard of a priest accumulating so much money in so little time. “We have not yet found another model,” he said.

And finally, Piroli would have to convince a hearing board chosen by Cardinal Roger Mahony that he was, in fact, framed by his elderly superior, James McKeon.

Piroli’s lawyer, Richard Beada, argued that McKeon skimmed money from the coffers of St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley long before Piroli arrived in 1990. Fearing that Piroli would turn him in, McKeon planted $10,000 in Piroli’s Chevrolet and most of the $50,000 that was found in the priest’s church office and bedroom, the lawyer said. Traces of cocaine were also planted in Piroli’s desk drawer, Beada said.

The defense offered to produce witnesses to testify that McKeon was seen at a West Hollywood gay bathhouse, and Beada argued that the older priest was stealing money to support this activity. The judge would not allow testimony about homosexuality.

McKeon testified that he never took church money for himself. And the archdiocese condemned Piroli’s charges as “a gross injustice” made without substantiation.

“It was very, very unjust to make allegations like that against Father McKeon, who has not been accused of any crime,” said Father Gregory Coiro, spokesman for the archdiocese comprised of Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.

After the verdict Friday, the archdiocese issued a statement repeating its defense of McKeon: “The archdiocese categorically rejects allegations the defense made against the character, good name and reputation of Father James McKeon.”

But Piroli’s charges against McKeon should not prejudice the archdiocese hearing panel, said Msgr. Joseph George, a canon lawyer and pastor of St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks.

“I think they would go into it with an openness, but it’s really hard for people who know Father McKeon to conceive that there is any problem like that,” George said. “They pretty well are convinced that Father McKeon is not involved in anything like that.”

The confidential church hearing is actually a fact-finding session, where the panel decides what it believes to be the truth, George said.

“It’s a little different than a criminal case where all it takes is doubt by one juror to hang a jury,” he said. “Here you’re going to deal with a preponderance of evidence. . . .And there may be a possibility of getting at the truth more easily.”

As part of the hearing, authorities would decide whether psychological counseling might help Piroli, George said. “That would be a very distinct possibility, without a doubt,” he said. “Most of this kind of thing that goes on in the church is medicinal, (not) punishment for the sake of punishment.”

After the hearing, Mahony would decide what action was appropriate, including whether there was just cause to take away Piroli’s sanction to act as a priest.

If the decision were against him, Piroli could appeal to a Congregation of the Clergy, a group of bishops in Rome that has the power to overturn an archdiocese decision, George said.

But he said it is extremely infrequent that a troubled priest endures the hearing process, and even more rare for one to appeal to the Vatican.

“The person decides that it’s not worth it and just takes off, you know,” George said.

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