Posted on 04/16/2005 11:24:59 PM PDT by CatherineSiena
A noted Catholic thinker who was brought in to run St. Anthony Catholic Church in south Omaha allegedly spent more than $400,000 in 1 and 1/2 years - at a small parish that normally spent about $50,000 a year.
Police are investigating the Rev. Peter Stravinskas' handling of St. Anthony's parish funds after parishioners filed a report of a possible embezzlement. Detectives have told a judge it appears parish money was spent on Stravinskas' personal expenses, including travel, mortgage payments and credit cards.
In a court filing last month, Omaha police said two parish funds - one worth $82,000 and the other worth $71,000 - were nearly wiped out. Only $4,200 remained from the $153,000 total, detectives told a judge.
But The World-Herald learned this week that those funds represented only part of St. Anthony's savings.
And people knowledgeable about the situation said the money taken from those accounts was only part of a larger amount spent from August 2002, when Stravinskas arrived, until March 2004, when the Archdiocese of Omaha froze parish funds.
Stravinskas has not been charged with a crime and remains St. Anthony's temporary administrator. He has declined to comment. He was scheduled to return Friday night from a trip to Rome, said the Rev. Nicholas Gregoris, who answered the door at the rectory Friday.
The Rev. Gregory Baxter, chancellor of the archdiocese, declined to comment, citing the police investigation.
Police have declined to comment on the extent of Stravinskas' alleged misspending.
Church financial records published in parish documents indicate, however, that St. Anthony had $313,000 in savings in January 2002. It is unclear what that total was when Stravinskas arrived that summer, but parishioners said St. Anthony had no extraordinary expenses before Stravinskas came.
The parish typically brought in about $50,000 a year and spent that much, said Albinas Reskevicius, a parish trustee for nearly 40 years until early 2003. He said he had no knowledge of parish spending since that time.
Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss brought Stravinskas, 54, to Omaha from Mount Pocono, Pa. A clerical group Stravinskas had founded there, the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, had been disbanded.
Stravinskas has written numerous books and founded magazines, the Catholic Answer and the Catholic Response, defending traditional Roman Catholic teachings.
Stravinskas, a native of New Jersey, is a priest of the Diocese of Boise, Idaho, but hasn't worked there in 25 years.
Stravinskas shares Lithuanian ancestry with many of the St. Anthony parishioners, but there has been no more explanation of why such a noted priest landed in a shrinking neighborhood parish.
Curtiss declined to be interviewed Friday about the parish's finances or about how he knows Stravinskas or why he brought him to Omaha.
In a May 2002 sermon, the archbishop praised Stravinskas as "a first-rate scholar with a rich academic background," and "a herald of truth in the church."
Curtiss delivered the sermon in New York City to mark the 25th anniversary of Stravinskas' ordination.
"Now that I am 70, I will be fortunate to be associated with you and your ministry for another decade," Curtiss said. "You are a special priest and a special friend to me and many people who really know you. I consider you a gift in my ministry and in my life."
In Omaha, Stravinskas registered the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman as a Nebraska nonprofit, based at the St. Anthony rectory.
Stravinskas also hired a contractor to renovate parish buildings. Contractor Mark Warsocki said the priest paid him and others to do $126,000 in work.
In the church, Warsocki said, he installed a marble floor in the sanctuary, painted the ceiling and repaired the tabernacle area.
Stravinskas wanted to convert the rectory, a former convent, into a more comfortable residence for himself, Gregoris and a seminarian, Warsocki said. They felt cramped in 9-by-13-foot rooms where nuns once lived, the contractor said.
He built a three-room suite for Stravinskas, plus a library, in the rectory's unfinished basement.
Warsocki installed new flooring, a patio door, windows, a wine rack and a deck on the rectory's main floor, he said, and converted four second-floor sleeping rooms into two living suites with individual bathrooms.
Warsocki said Stravinskas also had hired him to create two more living suites. But Warsocki said Stravinskas stopped the work on Good Friday 2004, after the archdiocese audit. The contractor said he had $16,000 worth of labor left to do.
Warsocki described the work as needed and not lavish. He said Stravinskas had him buy materials from home improvement stores with the priest's personal credit card.
Warsocki said he undercharged because of inexperience and a desire to improve a parish where his grandfather and father had belonged.
So, the way to revitalize a "dying parish" is to use its endowment to buy marble floors, spacious private apartments, a wine rack...and... "Detectives have told a judge it appears parish money was spent on Stravinskas' personal expenses, including travel, mortgage payments and credit card.
I think there's a bigger problem here than "extremely anti-Catholic media outlets in Omaha Nebraska."
Boy, you folks just can't get beyond that wine rack, can you? How are Father's homilies? Does he say an orthodox Mass? Is he faithful to the Magisterium?
The nerve of him to repair the tabernacle area, too! "Hey Father! Real Presence or not, that's Lithuanian money you're throwin' around!"
I seem to remember throwing up myself when I was serving LATIN mass at 6:30 every morning. Must have been the drugs and alcohol I used to drink when I was 12/13. Also Father Tautkus would have mass even if only one person was in church or 20 people were there. This guy seems to depend on numbers to have mass or not. Oh yeah and it helps if you're not Lithuanian and can fill up the collection basket.
Sorry this was an unfinished thought that accidently made it on here. My mistake !!!!
You know it isn't the repairs but the way everything is done and then asked if its okay. His title is "temporary administrator", not "remodeler extraordinaire". All of these repairs should have either been put to a vote or the parishioners at least told, not done and then asked for donations to pay for it.(I'm referring to the sanctuary here). I was married at St. Anthony's and the comments on the beauty of the altar and front of the church were overwhelming by people who were there or saw our wedding pictures. Oops I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that most people in the parish are on fixed incomes and can't always come up with the big money at mass or when renting the hall or school (for parishioners???). Being told the Lithuanian groups and social hall aren't really parish functions so you need to pay for anything using the facilities of St. Anthony's, even though St. Anthony's is officially known as a "Lithuanian National Parish". So when we mention the wine racks etc., we just don't want to be financing all these perks for a "tmporary administrator". By the way it's ST. ANTHONY'S RECTORY not newman house !!!!!!!!!!
You've got mail !!!!
Why do you and Angelas keep talking about throwing up?
Why do you and Angelas keep talking about throwing up?
If this were a Protestant criminal, he'd be arrested and in jail awaiting trial. It happens regularly. Why won't the Catholic church file charges against their criminals in collars?
It sounds as though you're not too welcoming to outsiders who want to contribute to your Lithuanian parish.
Afterall, you are there to worship and attend all holy day feasts, functions, vespers, adult education classes, etc... correct?
Good point..."if this were a criminal" you nailed it here..brilliant work...even the spewn vomit that has come forth here can be seen through...
By the way would it be criminal to be paid a salary from a parish and not report these earnings to the IRS?
Or is this only for the Protestants to be concerned about.. Catholic lay people should do wht about this?
Help me,,, I'm concerned...
"Although of both Lithuanian and German descent, St. Casimir was raised and educated in the Polish cultural atmosphere of the times."
Deo Gratias!
Since you called childish earlier " you started it"
(Sigh)
Just answer the question.
Hey that sounds like a good name for a new show ...."Remodeler Extraordinaire" a travelling Catholic priest will come to your dead, dying parish and revamp the sanctuary (where Jesus lives...oh and try to use that as his excuse!) spend all of your secret trust fund money that you had previously used (with the permission of the AB)for social events and then leave you with a beautiful sanctuary for Our Lord Jesus Christ to live and reign as one God forever and ever.
I bet even the Protestants will like this show.
If you can get passed the throwing up part, you might see that it is a lead into my comments.
Haven't you figured out their M.O. yet? It's not about the Church, being Catholic, spreading the Gospel, the Body of Christ, or any of that silly stuff. It's about money. Pure and simple.
And it's ST. ANTHONY'S RECTORY, not Newman House. And his title is "temporary administrator", not Fr. Stravinskas.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Can you tell me what kind of car Fr. S. drives?
Not at all, you missed my point, which is that everyone should be treated equally and not dismissed because you don't agree or don't always make it to all the different functions and events in the parish or for that matter contribute enough in the basket.
It's very easy to "miss your point" since you most often don't even have one.
To quote you: "This guys seems to depend on numbers to have Mass or not."
Makes sense to me! If no one is showing up for daily Mass or special liturgical events like Adoration, why should he knock himself out? Were you there? Was Angelas there?
This may explain why your parish was/will again wither on the vine.
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