State Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan agreed at a hearing yesterday to a request by Assistant Morris County Prosecutor Leslie Wade to keep Jose Feliciano's bail at $1 million but changed it from cash, bond or property to cash only.

Feliciano has been held on murder and weapons charges since last Friday, when the body of Rev. Ed Hinds, 61, was discovered on the floor of the rectory kitchen at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church, in Chatham.

Prosecutors said that Hinds had been stabbed 32 times. Feliciano worked at the church for 17 years.

Yesterday, Feliciano, 64, shackled and in olive prison garb, looked at the ground as he entered and exited the courtroom past about two dozen photographers and reporters.

He did not speak during the hearing.

Wade told the judge that Feliciano had confessed to Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the county prosecutor's office. Wade said that Feliciano had an open arrest warrant from 1988 in Philadelphia that involved an alleged assault and "corruption of a minor," but didn't add details and didn't comment after the hearing.

According to court documents, Hinds discussed firing Feliciano a day before his death.

An application for a warrant to search Feliciano's home in Easton, Pa., revealed that St. Patrick School principal Marian Hobbie said that Hinds had told her that the box for passing a criminal-background check had not been checked in Feliciano's personnel file.