All that's missing is the straw hat! But by then, of course, Vaughan had left the Catholic priesthood, and despite the collar, he was no more a Catholic priest than Bing Crosby.
Other details given in the story are puzzling in light of the record. It says, for instance, that Vaughan's wife, Rebecca, had been "an Episcopalian for 15 years". However, the obituary for her first husband says he was a Presbyterian. Her second husband, Louis Ira Fein, may have come from a Jewish family. Her fourth husband, Amr Darwish, has a Muslim name. If Rebecca was or is Episcopalian, she appears to be an Episcopalian of a certain sort.
The Ledger piece reflects a certain optimism and desire to get ahead on Fr Vaughan's part. Praising the rector and the permanent deacon there, he is reported to have said "the three of them work as a team." He's described in the piece as a transitional deacon and curate; it looks like there was some expectation at the time that he would go on staff there as an assistant.
This didn't happen. As I reported last year, according to both St Paul's Winter Haven and the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, he served as an interim priest there for only a short time. The only other reference I have to that period is a wedding there at which he officiated in 1998. Indeed, the tone of the replies I got to my inquiries last year verged on the defensive: well, yeah, he was a priest here, but not for very long. What happened?
The only other assignment Vaughan had in The Episcopal Church, according to the Diocese of Central Florida, was as vicar of a failing mission, St Joseph's Orlando. We don't know when he started there, but by several accounts, he left in 2005. We now know that as of early January 2006, he'd sold his interest in a house to Rebecca, presumably by now his ex-wife. According to the ACA, "In 2005 he began his service in the Anglican Church in America at St. Patrick's Church in Port St. John, Florida[.]"
In other words, his service in The Episcopal Church, by TEC's account marginal, ended at roughly the time of his divorce. The index of priests on the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida's web site no longer carries any reference to John Vaughan. There's still a great deal we don't know.
