Catholic Priests charged over £4.6m hole in church collection plate
Pastor Dale Morgan
Catholic Priests charged over £4.6m hole in church collection plate*
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Tuesday October 3, 2006
The Guardian
"Once again you've witnessed the weakness of priests," the Reverend Tom
Skindeleski told the congregation at St Vincent Ferrer Roman Catholic
church on Sunday.
The weakness of two pastors at the church in Palm Beach, Florida left an
$8.6m (£4.6m) hole in its collection plate, according to police.
Church authorities were contrite. Very contrite.
"I'm truly, truly, truly sorry," the bishop said at Sunday Mass.
"Priests are humans and they make mistakes," Rev Gerald Barbarito said.
"Some make mistakes we can certainly understand. Others, not so. Sexual
abuse, stealing money, we cannot understand this. Prayer is our
strongest resource. The Lord is the only perfect one, and we rely on his
strength."
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As parishioners left the church on George Bush Boulevard, they were
asked to make contributions to a special collection marked "Debt relief"
to aid the church.
The two Irish pastors were charged last week with misappropriating the
money over 40 years.
Monsignor John Skehan, 79, was arrested at Palm Beach airport on
Wednesday as he returned from a trip to Ireland. He was released on
$400,000 (£214,000) bail on Friday.
The Rev Francis Guinan, 63, who succeeded Skehan three years ago, is
thought to be on holiday in Australia. Police are reported to be
negotiating his surrender.
Police allege the two men skimmed money from contributions at the
4,000-member church to spend on gambling trips to Las Vegas and the
Bahamas, property in Palm Beach and to support their girlfriends.
The two pastors have been placed on administrative leave by the diocese.
The year-long police investigation into the alleged misappropriation of
funds at the church was prompted by a letter from a parishioner who was
concerned that the matter would be dealt with internally by the diocese.
The scandal is not the first to affect the Palm Beach Diocese. It lost
consecutive bishops in 1999 and 2002 after they admitted to
inappropriate sexual behaviour with young men.
"I hope we have a smile on our face this morning, it's been a difficult
week," Monsignor Leonard Badia told parishioners at St Vincent Ferrer on
Saturday.
"What would life be like without crisis? But we're here because of Christ."