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.
I have just joined in on these "comments" and I find yours to be very brutal. For you never having been to St. Anthony's LITHUANIAN Church before the arrival of the so-called "administrator", you seem to know a lot of information regarding Father(and believe me, I have a hard time calling him this) Stravinskas and the Church. He may be God in your eyes, and I compare him to David Koresh, but that's neither here nor there. What all this comes down to is "money". If he came to the parish with it having almost half a million dollars (which probably took close to 40 years to fairly gain), how can one man spend it in 21/2 years? Yes, renovations to the Church and the rectory were done HOWEVER AWFUL they may look, but there was no parishioner input regarding these renovations and the money being spent. If renovations were only, let's say, $200,000, where's the other 200,000?
Are you trying to tell me there is no active parish council at St. Anthony's? There is no parish that takes every expediture to a vote of all the parishioners. If the council okayed Father's spending that's all he needs.
Isn't this really about you and your ilk being peeved that you're not controlling St. Anthony's anymore?
Since Petskelis won't answer, would YOU be willing to share with all the post-ers here what kind of car Father drives?
Why does he need an air-conditioner in the Rectory? He's never there--he's traveling here and there spending the Parish's money. It's never been an issue brought up before, why now? The High and Almighty Father Stravinskas has to have the best of everything? Sorry--doesn't work that way in any parish!!!
What's the type of car he drives have to do with anything? I don't care if he walks, takes the bus or rides a bike.
What's the type of car he drives have to do with anything? I don't care if he walks, takes the bus or rides a bike.
Are you for real? Newsflash!!! It's 2005 A.D in Omaha, Nebraska. Half a million bucks in the bank and you won't spring for AC in the rectory? No wonder you haven't had a resident priest - he'd be better off at the nearest homeless shelter.
Quoting you: "The High and Almighty Father Stravinskas has to have the best of everything?"
Please, tell everyone what kind of car Father drives! Since he's so "high and mighty" it must be a Cadillac or a flashy sportscar. Why won't you tell us?
Re-read the bulletin item again Angelas. Let me help you comprehend what it says:
The people TARGETED by false rumors and gossip were turning up dead because uneducated people were believing the unfounded, malicious rumors. Get it?
Father is trying to explain that vicious words, lies, and accusations could be harmful to others. Got it?
Commandment #8: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You see, what happened in that bulletin is that an ordained Catholic priest taught you about the detrimental effects of sin. It's simple, really.
Pastas.
Isn't the opposing viewpoint always "brutal"? Get used to it - I'm just getting started.
Even if you find the post that says Father didn't get clearance from the council it doesn't prove anything.
Got the make on that car yet?
"Was Angelas there?"
Yes.
I bet!
Pastas?
Do you have to have a pow-wow with Petskelis to discuss how you'll respond to my question about the car?
Why would you need to warn the supposed newbie, "Maske13", that Chicago Faithful sounds like Ancilla? How would a newcomer know who Ancilla is?
Did you slip up AGAIN?
Maybe they can read? Or are you so blinded by hate that you can't or won't?
No slip up at all, Mrs. S.
I highly doubt that anyone who spends so much time and energy trying to destroy the reputation of a good priest would see the value in Eucharistic Adoration.
Are you saying Father doesn't have a "high and almighty" car?! Now we're getting somewhere!
I have no idea if the two Fathers argued about air conditioning. All I know is that you think a priest wanting AC in the 21st century is an abomination! This isn't circa 1950 Lithuania!
You continue to post as though Father has been proven guilty of something. He's been called a thief on this site. When he leaves Omaha, can he take any of the improvements that he made to YOUR church and YOUR rectory with him? The answer is a resounding NO! In fact, he may have improved your chances of one day getting a resident priest again.
As for the shrill-o-meter, you just can't handle anyone blowing holes in all your malicious, unfounded drivel. Being asked questions that you can't answer isn't "brutal", but destroying a man's reputation certainly is!
Ooooh, you know my name. Big deal!
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.