Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Spending at parish soars with new priest
WORLD-HERALD ^ | April 16, 2005 | CHRISTOPHER BURBACH

Posted on 04/16/2005 11:24:59 PM PDT by CatherineSiena

Spending at parish soars with new priest

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.


TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: omaha
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 321-340341-360361-380 ... 401-410 next last
To: church militant

I have read Not by Faith Alone and Not by Scripture Alone. I believe Father S. did the epilogue on one of these. I enjoyed both books.


341 posted on 06/05/2005 10:17:52 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 340 | View Replies]

To: Angelas

Hey, good buddy! Hope all is well.


342 posted on 06/05/2005 10:20:12 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 330 | View Replies]

To: Angelas; Palladin; Petskelis

"To: church militant
I guess I'll just post to myself since everyone else is speechless.

(crickets chirping)

335 posted on 06/04/2005 8:38:34 PM PDT by church militant "

What have you done to this poor woman? Now she is posting to herself?


343 posted on 06/05/2005 10:33:14 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 330 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

So you were away on business trips for, what, three weeks?

And you miraculously return to this thread the day after I ask what happened to you. Amazing!

No Internet Access at the hotel?


344 posted on 06/05/2005 10:38:10 AM PDT by church militant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 343 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

WELCOME BACK !!!!!


345 posted on 06/05/2005 11:08:45 AM PDT by Petskelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 337 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

I don't think we've really done anything to her, I think she's done it to herself !!!!


346 posted on 06/05/2005 11:10:59 AM PDT by Petskelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 343 | View Replies]

To: church militant
"So you were away on business trips for, what, three weeks?

And you miraculously return to this thread the day after I ask what happened to you. Amazing!

No Internet Access at the hotel?"

When I work on the road usually I am so tired at night I could care less about the Internet except to check my e-mails.
347 posted on 06/05/2005 11:31:59 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 344 | View Replies]

To: Petskelis
I am trying to get caught up on posts in other places on the web. I found this one that is very interesting, sound familiar?

"When Stravinskas took over as pastor of St. John's Byzantine Church in Bayonne, NJ he TOOK over and did everything HIS way which began with his redecorating the parish rectory with new phones, carpets and furniture. A sale of the old items was stopped by the bishop after it was seen in the paper.There was NOTHING wrong with what was already in the rectory. The finances of the parish were not overflowing and unnecessary spending should have been curtailed.

He never really took part in church affairs, rarely showed his face in the Parish Center and spent so much time on the Road away from his parish that no one was sure who would be saying mass that week. Temporary priests were always coming and going. We hardly ever saw him.

He was the only pastor who had to know immediately the morning after bingo how much money was deposited in the bingo account and in many cases the money was removed ASAP.
When he was asked questions about the finances of St. John's his reply was the "I do NOT have to answer to you or anyone else."

His going was a relief to many people. Perhaps this investigation is for the better. And we all know what "I decline to comment" usually means. Perhaps praying for the parish is more in order. Yours in Christ."
348 posted on 06/05/2005 11:38:14 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 346 | View Replies]

To: ancilla
"You might be Dr Jeffrey Bond, who has posted on other blogs regarding this story. On the other blog Dr Bond was trying to make a connection just as you are to the dirty dealings in Pennsylvania."

This one is hilarious! Do you really think Dr. Bond would have to hide here? He is not afraid to say what he feels whether it is here or anyplace else.
349 posted on 06/05/2005 11:45:44 AM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 316 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

I had heard bits and pieces of this story when he first arrived 3 years ago (by the way his trial basis contract is up in August as we were told when he first arrived), but haven't heard anything since. All his dealings with finances, antics, comments, suddenly make sense and follow the same thread as some of Palladin's observations in PA. Good job on the research.


350 posted on 06/05/2005 11:50:19 AM PDT by Petskelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 348 | View Replies]

To: Petskelis

Mail :)


351 posted on 06/05/2005 12:15:02 PM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 350 | View Replies]

To: Petskelis
"I had heard bits and pieces of this story when he first arrived 3 years ago (by the way his trial basis contract is up in August as we were told when he first arrived), but haven't heard anything since."

The rumors were about Holy Trinity (Lithuanian) and Epiphany (Portuguese)Parish, 207 Adams St, Newark, NJ, not this church.
352 posted on 06/05/2005 12:35:19 PM PDT by Concerned Catholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 350 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

Sorry, my mistake


353 posted on 06/05/2005 12:41:23 PM PDT by Petskelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 352 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

Peg, is that you?


354 posted on 06/05/2005 12:53:23 PM PDT by church militant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 352 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic
Welcome back and read your mail.
355 posted on 06/05/2005 3:06:14 PM PDT by Angelas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 342 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

Your post on St. John's Byzantine Church in Bayonne, NJ is very, very interesting.


356 posted on 06/05/2005 3:09:52 PM PDT by Angelas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 348 | View Replies]

To: Angelas

Yet another church that fell victim to Stravinskas. Nice racket he has going on. Maybe he should be charged under the RICO Act.


357 posted on 06/05/2005 7:32:35 PM PDT by Palladin (No Korans were abused in the making of this post.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 356 | View Replies]

To: Concerned Catholic

The only people who call PhD's "Doctor" are the degree-holders themselves.

Let this be a clue as to the ego you're dealing with.


358 posted on 06/05/2005 9:00:31 PM PDT by church militant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 339 | View Replies]

To: church militant

Hell hath no fury like a PhD scorned.


359 posted on 06/05/2005 9:02:14 PM PDT by church militant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 358 | View Replies]

To: Palladin

You're so funny!


360 posted on 06/06/2005 4:11:34 PM PDT by Angelas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 357 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 321-340341-360361-380 ... 401-410 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson