BOISE, ID — The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, an Idaho priest serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, described himself at his recent sentencing as "one really sick puppy."
That is a prescient assessment.
The 73-year-old priest was being sentenced for distribution of child pornography. That charge, all too common nowadays, does not adequately portray the utterly depraved inner world in which this elderly apostate cleric had gleefully immersed himself.
In terms of volume, this was hardly an earth-shattering pornography bust— about 2500 files. It was the nature of the images that sickened investigators and provided a window-view into the soul of a monster. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden would call the Faucher case "one of the most difficult cases the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit has ever investigated," citing the "extremely disturbing" evidence that they had to process, which had common themes of torture and violence towards children.
Faucher originally came to the attention of Garden City police when a cyber-tipster reported a pair of images that were sent from Faucher's AOL email address. During the ensuing investigation, law enforcement officials monitored the priest's email and chatroom activity, in which he reveled in his "satanic interests" in the rape and killing of children, especially babies and altar boys, and discussed his fixation on the specific age of six years old.
In his online chats with a like-minded individual known as Bruno, investigators would watch as dark infatuations took further hold of a willingly fallen churchman. Faucher noted that "the thought of killing someone does begin to excite" him, and that he felt a "wonderful indifference" to the increasingly violent, exploitative nature of the pornography that he collected.
Faucher's online writings would also detail pseudo-Satanic blasphemies against the Church and its Lord, including "urinating on a cross and canon law book [and] in the wine for Mass." Violating the tenets of his faith became exercises in pleasure; Faucher "bragged to Bruno about how easy it had become to lie: 'It felt good to lie for no good reason except to do it ... Most of the time, I just make a new reality and believe it as long as it suits me.'"
Faucher also debased himself with drugs, using psychedelics to further open himself to the darkness that was enveloping him; when arrested, he would be found to be in possession of LSD and Ecstasy. He abused alcohol and smoked marijuana, which was also found during his arrest.
When arrested, Faucher was charged with 21 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one felony drug possession charge for the LSD and two counts of misdemeanor drug possession for the marijuana and ecstasy.
A psychological evaluation led to Faucher's diagnosis as a pedophile and determined that he represents a high risk for re-offense. Prosecutors advocated for a 30-year prison sentence, with 20 years to be served before parole eligibility.
Faucher's lawyer, Mark Manweiler, emphasized that he "never sexually abused any child" (although there have been two accusations) and noted glowing testimony as to his character prior to his descent into a "world of Satanism and pornography," including that of Boise Mayor Dave Bieter. Manweiler requested probation and sex offender treatment with no prison time.
Faucher pled guilty to two counts of distribution of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of drug possession. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison without possibility of parole, and sex offender status.
Meanwhile, the diocese is doing its best to erase Faucher altogether; it had Faucher evicted, had the house he was living in "exorcised", and sold it. It is currently working to have him defrocked.
I'm not sure what to make of this last. Exorcisms don't come easily; they are never performed until a thorough church investigation eliminates all possibilities for phenomena except for the diabolic. If the diocese actually performed an exorcism, that makes a very strong statement about their true view on the source of Reverend Faucher's fall from grace.
At the same time, exorcisms are typically performed on people, not places, which leads me to speculate that perhaps the diocese just had the house blessed, and the reporting is a bit less-than-precise.