Two priests steal 8.6 million from their parishoners

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Wow. I wonder if someone will turn this into evidence that we need to allow priests to marry. 🙂

Scott
 
Strange it went on this long. Where were the auditors for the parish?

Our priests are toooo busy to take trips anywhere.

But, I will with-hold judgment until they are convicted.
 
Ugh. Stealing money now :mad:

This is why Dioceses are struggling!

Hang them I say!
 
I guess every diocese/parish is a little different. I find it shocking that theft could go on for so long undetected.

We have a parish finance committee that includes a good-sized group of lay people who know about that sort of thing. They have regular meetings with the pastor and appropriate parish staff. They serve terms so that it is not always the same group. We also have an annual finance report that is published in our bulletin that shows the breakdown income and major sources of it plus the expenditures. I don’t think such a theft would be possible given our set up.
 
Of course you’ll never see in the media stories like my former pastor, who, out of his own pocket, paid off our $5000 parish debt, just before his transfer to another parish.
 
These kinds of things happen when well-known rules for handling money are not followed. It is not advisable to trust anyone - even the priest - when handling finances because everyone is subject to temptation. Standard accounting procedures that require every penny to be accounted for should be routine.

The sad part is that had strict procedures been in place the priests would have been dissuaded from dipping in the till. There is much good to be said for keeping people honest.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Of course you’ll never see in the media stories like my former pastor, who, out of his own pocket, paid off our $5000 parish debt, just before his transfer to another parish.
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If these priests had stolen $5000, you wouldn’t see that in the national media either.
 
The theft of so much money is shocking. But what is sad about it is when you realize that those priests wouldn’t have done it if they believed in God. How tragic to be a priest and yet have no faith.
 
Liberalsaved said:
If these priests had stolen $5000, you wouldn’t see that in the national media either.
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Are you kidding? Every time I open the newspaper, it’s blazened with every negative bit of information they can get against the Catholic Church. Bigger crimes by other religions barely get a mention. And this isn’t just my paper but almost every paper especially the big ones.

If mr. nobody has a quote against the church, you can bet it will be headlines.

Im sorry for venting but this is what I see.
 
Liberalsaved said:
If these priests had stolen $5000, you wouldn’t see that in the national media either.
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St. Augustine says: “Theft is punished by thy law, O Lord, and by the law written in men’s hearts, which not even ingrained wickedness can erase. For what thief will tolerate another thief stealing from him?”
 
SORROWS said:
Are you kidding? Every time I open the newspaper, it’s blazened with every negative bit of information they can get against the Catholic Church. Bigger crimes by other religions barely get a mention. And this isn’t just my paper but almost every paper especially the big ones.

If mr. nobody has a quote against the church, you can bet it will be headlines.

Im sorry for venting but this is what I see.
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This is about money and media, not religion. You think religion is so persecuted in the media, but you don’t seem to understand the media. If it bleeds, it leads. Bad news always tops headlines and broadcasts, catholic, atheists, protestant, or Church of Moon Lad, if it’s bad they will air it.

An 8.6 million dollar theft far tops a 5000 dollar gift. People unfortunately want dirt, and the media give them what they want. The fact that they were Catholic makes no difference over the fact that the story is negative.
 
Liberalsaved said:
This is about money and media, not religion. You think religion is so persecuted in the media, but you don’t seem to understand the media. If it bleeds, it leads. Bad news always tops headlines and broadcasts, catholic, atheists, protestant, or Church of Moon Lad, if it’s bad they will air it.

An 8.6 million dollar theft far tops a 5000 dollar gift. People unfortunately want dirt, and the media give them what they want. The fact that they were Catholic makes no difference over the fact that the story is negative.
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The media makes money and baised news releases their god.
 
I have no confirmation of this, but heard in passing that one priest used money to pay for his child to go to parochial school? I couldn’t find any mention of that, but has anyone else heard this? And yes, the media will sieze on it and play it hard and long, but really…does that make what was done any less evil or wrong? I’m no fan of the media – but let’s not allow that disenchantment with them take our eyes off of what was stripped from those parishoners, or more importantly, what was stripped from God when these priests abused their vocations…
 
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All of you know that gossip is not allowed in this forum. Please limit your discussion to information which is contained in published news articles. Thanks for your cooperation.

Walt
 
Has anyone read the actual article yet?

The cnn link story in the Opening Post says:
Skehan’s attorney, Ken Johnson, said he thought the multimillion dollar figure was “over sensationalized.”
“My reading of the probable cause affidavit indicates that the amount of money he’s actually accused of misappropriating amounts to about $325,000, which is a far cry from $8.6 million,” Johnson said.
The 8.6 million IS ONLY REPORTED sofar, in this case its for HEADLINES.

I dont believe the 8.6M figure given that this would/should have been detected easily (a bank account with 8.6M? land purchaced in priests name?, etc) and I question the likelyhood of any parish pulling in 10s of millions of dollars in offereings not to mention the professional accounting that would need to be in place to deal with that much.
 
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