WANTED
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.
To: TaxachusettsMan So where do both groups go to collect on your wager? 116 posted on 05/29/2005 12:04:31 PM PDT by Angelas
That's what prompted my post . . . you seemed keen on collecting something, not "awaiting" any findings . . .
I know I'm kind of new to all this, but I feel I have to ask this question. I've noticed everyone who is defending the administrator at St. Anthony's keeps referring to the parish as being----- Dead-end, a dump, an Eastern Bloc work camp, armpit of Omaha, full of drug dealers and graffiti, in between all the gunshots. My question is --- Why did you come here and why are you still here ???? I'm sorry that's 2 questions. Just wondering !!!!!
Patikrink savo pasta !!!!
Taip pat ir tau!
Why risk my life and travel into St. Anthony's territory? To be taught and led spiritually by the most outstanding priest I know, that's why! And I didn't just drive across town - I drove 140 miles every Wednesday for four months and it was worth every mile, minute, and penny.
I have a question for those of you who refuse to give Father even one ounce of credit. Even if, in your estimation, he has spent too much of your parish money, what will you have to show for your loss if you run him out of town? Your parish will be priestless again and then what? At least with him there your parish is active and attracting people from near and far. This can only benefit your parish, right?
Right now, you are so incredibly blessed to have a priest of Father's caliber in your parish. He is a walking encyclopedia of Catholicism. Take advantage of the goldmine you have at St. Anthony's! I have even read about your parish in a national Catholic publication because of the orthodox Mass that is celebrated there by Father Stravinskas.
Are you suggesting that Father's defenders' descriptions of the St. Anthony's neighborhood are inaccurate? It seems as though you and your lot take these observations personally which is ridiculous.
One night when I was in your church, some drunk teenagers wandered in off the street during the Rosary. One of them threw up in the back pew! Seems as though this south Omaha neighborhood is in need of a vibrant, visible Catholic parish to help turn the tide. Father has started the revolution. Are you in? Or are you going to bitch about the depletion of your bloated bank accounts that were doing no good whatsoever?
It seems to be a Lithuanian virus. In Chicago, the pastor of the Lithuanian parish was accused of the same thing. Maybe there is a reason for the lack of Lithuanian saints.
Unbelievable!
Some of these priests think that ordination is a licnse to steal.
"You are as unchristian as Stravinskas"
Maybe Ancilla IS Stravinskas. He's a newbie.
What does 'newbie' mean?
Probe Concerns Parishioners : Omaha priest target of fraud investigation : WOWT
Allegations of fraud at a south Omaha church have parishioners up in arms. Police are investigating whether a priest at St. Anthony's Parish used church funds for personal business.
They were hoping for an explanation, but as Sunday Mass ended, several parishioners said they still have not been told what happened to $150,000 in church money. According to court documents, St. Anthony's church endowment had $82,000 two-and-a-half years ago, but is now all gone. The church, at 32nd and S streets, also had a mutual fund of more than $70,000, and it too is almost all gone.
An FBI auditor said the monies from St. Anthony's accounts appeared to be used for personal expenses by the Rev. Peter Stravinskas. "We had great hopes with having him here, so we are highly hurt and disappointed," said parishioner Kristina Janyka.
Many came to Mass to hear Father Stravinskas' side of the story, but he did not attend. The parish bulletin reported that he's in Rome this week and it didn't mention anything about the allegations. "It is disappointing because you don't know what the fate of our church is," said Mary Antanelis, one of several parishioners who met in the social hall after Mass to talk about the parish's future. "When you have funds set aside in case of an emergency and those funds are no longer there and that's a surprise to us, yeah. It was kind of like your bank account was completely depleted."
Some parishioners are standing behind Father Stravinskas. "We are a little bit amazed to see what's happened over the past week or so," said John Davis, who said he and his wife sat down with the archbishop to talk about the accusations. "He told us at the end of that that there wasn't any basis to the accusations. It's something that we need to get settled and get behind us so we can all move forward."
Some still say until the police investigation is complete, they want to know where the money went. Father Stravinskas is not a priest of the Omaha Archdiocese, but out of Boise, Idaho. He is living at St. Anthony's with the permission of the chancery.
That's old news. What's the point? If you're going to post it should at least make sense.
WANTED
It has information that was not mentioned on this thread: that the FBI is involved in this investigation. Mutual Funds fraud is a very serious charge.
For what?
I think we all knew the FBI was involved.
I may be eating crow before this is all over with but so might you. Seems like it's taking a long time for the authorities to come up with something that will stick, doesn't it?
What is a newbie? Enlighten me!
'Newbie' is internet-speak for someone who is new to the forum. Is used in everyday, non-internet speech to mean someone who is new to the job, the area, etc.
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