St. Louis, Mo., Jan 11, 2023 / 14:00 pm
A retired Vincentian priest who ministered in St. Louis until 2021 was sentenced this week to five years in prison, after admitting in October to possessing thousands of images containing child pornography.
Father James T. Beighlie, 72, is a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, also called the Vincentians. The order’s U.S. Western Province is based in St. Louis.
According to the Department of Justice, Beighlie pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography in October 2022. The priest’s attorney had argued for a supervised release, citing health problems, including heart disease and kidney failure.
At the time of his sentencing, Beighlie was residing at the Vianney Renewal Center, a Catholic facility in rural Dittmer, Missouri, near the St. Louis metro area. The center is run by the Servants of the Paraclete, a group that has long operated centers for the treatment of priests and religious with problems of sexual or substance abuse. For a time, the facility in Dittmer housed disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.