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  Worcester Diocese Strips Priest of Ministry

The Associated Press, carried in MaineToday [Worcester MA]
May 17, 2005

WORCESTER, Mass. — The Diocese of Worcester said a priest who was sent home from Maine last week has been stripped of his ability to minister, enforcing a decision made by Portland Bishop Richard Malone to remove the Reverend Michael J. Sheridan?s priestly authority.

Meanwhile, Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus said Monday he is awaiting a full report on Sheridan from Portland.

Sheridan, 56, was returned to Worcester after an alleged incident at a jail in Machias, Maine.

District Attorney Michael Povich of Ellsworth, Maine, told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester in a telephone interview that he did not want to go into details of the incident, except to say it involved "inappropriate physical interaction" with a female inmate at the jail. Some of the interaction was videotaped by a camera in the jail, he said.

Povich said the conduct was not criminal, and he would leave it up to the Worcester and Portland dioceses to release any details.

The Diocese of Portland declined to characterize the alleged incident, but said happened about a week ago, and was a violation of its code of conduct.

A former prison chaplain, Sheridan was administrator of Holy Name Parish of Machias and St. Michael Mission of Cherryfield, Maine. Although he had been serving in Maine for the past decade, he never officially became a priest of the Portland diocese, and remained under the authority of the Worcester bishop.

A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Sheridan was ordained in Worcester in 1975 by Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan. The Massachusetts parishes where he served included: St. Pius X, Leicester; St. Bernard, Worcester; Holy Family of Nazareth, Leominster; St. Luke the Evangelist, Westboro; St. Peter, Northbridge; St. Louis, Webster, and St. Mary, Uxbridge.