[cripplecreek]

From what I've seen in the local news he has an accomplice.



Michigan legislative action thread

[Gamecock]

**Belczak, 69, and his accomplice, 67-year-old Janice Verschuren**

Janice?

[prairiebreeze]

Reverend Edward Belczak

Wouldn't that be Father Edward Belczak? I'm asking here, are priests commonly referred to as "Reverend"?

Elsewhere the article refers to him as pastor. Is that also a common reference to a priest?

[JPG]

Must have been absent when #8 was discussed.

[jsanders2001]

Millions of churches and their pastors do the “right thing” everyday but noooo it doesn’t count one iota if one man of the cloth is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and goes and does something like this. That’s how the Devil works; he finds a weakness and seizes on it and reveals it to the world to cast suspicion on the rest so that he can draw as many people away from God as he can. The MSM is his tool of delivery at the moment.

[goodwithagun]

Paging Joel Osteen . . .

[kinsman redeemer]

The priest reportedly used some of the stolen funds to ...

THAT's what I'm wondering about.

[Arthur McGowan]

He should have become a bishop first. Preferably archbishop of Milwaukee. Then he could have stolen $450,000 to give to his boyfriend.

[Iscool]

The money included donations given on Mother's and Father's Day, as well as a $350,000 donation to the church from the relatives of a parishioner who passed away.

Poor suckers...Apparently to pay for the prayers to get someone out of purgatory...What a racket...

[Alex Murphy]

Reverend Edward Belczak and another church administrator were indicted for theft of $700,000 from the St. Thomas More Church in Troy and the Archdiocese of Detroit between 2004 and 2012, The Detroit News reported. The pair allegedly concealed the theft by forging documents to the Archdiocese that showed the parish's expenses to be a lesser amount than it really was. Belczak, 69, and his accomplice, 67-year-old Janice Verschuren, face several charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, according to the indictment released Wednesday. Both face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, the newspaper reported.

Catholics could learn a thing or two from Evangelicals.

Connecticut priest convicted of embezzling $1 million dies of cancer (Catholic Caucus)
Vatican hit by economic downturn: official figures
The pitfalls of shrouded finances [Charlie Feliciano, former lawyer for the Cleveland diocese]
SHOCK: $100K Gone, $1M Owed, Nudist Priest
Priest with secret marriage pleads guilty to half-million-dollar embezzlement
Priest facing 12 more counts
Bishops look at fleecings of flocks
Pilfering Priests
Spotsy 'family' had neighbors fooled
Priest accused of theft ($600,000 from two small churches in Virginia)
Priest says ill-gotten money went to school
AP: Priest May Have Misspent $1.4 Million (So He Could Live Lavish Lifestyle With His "Partner")
Spending at parish soars with new priest
Diocese hid $400,000 embezzlement from public

"If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.... He should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft....if a man delivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double. If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges to see whether he has put his hand into his neighbor’s goods..."

-- Exodus 22:1-7 (excerpted)