Can a priest borrow money from his parish?

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Worried41

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I work in my parish’s office and one of my co-workers and I have become concerned about something that’s been going on.

First off, we work at a very small parish that can barely pay its bills on a month-to-month basis, much less begin chipping away at the money we owe the diocese. We have a young priest who isn’t great at budgeting and has borrowed money from the parish’s meager accounts to pay his own bills. It’s been over a year and nothing has been paid back.

It’s made my co-worker, especially, very uncomfortable, and has been weighing on her mind for months now. I finally told her I would try to find someone to ask anonymously. We really don’t want him to get into trouble, but since it’s happened more than once and there haven’t been any signs of paying back the parish, we were hoping for some advice. Is it acceptable for a priest to borrow money from his parish?
 
I honestly don’t know. I can only say that, if it is allowable, it seems to be imprudent to do so from a parish that is already struggling with unmanageable bills of its own. I recommend contacting the St. Joseph Foundation for an assessment of the canon law aspects of this situation and for advice on whether to do anything, and if so, how.
 
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