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.
You're obviously not bilingual, unless you consider pig latin a language. I speak the language to someone else because they understand it, nothing else. Me, childish. Who's speaking pig latin ? If you don't know what a word is, don't guess, it's embarrassing.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Stravinskas gave up the "comforts" of home for a missionary assignment? Don't make me laugh!
So that's why he redid the rectory, making two huge suites, one for himself, and one for his very close friend Nick; why he raided the St.Anthony treasury to pay off credit card debts? (Missionaries have credit card debts?); to pay off mortgages, etc. etc. etc.
Your cloying post may have gone over big with ignorant Catholic immigrants of centuries gone by, but not in this new information age. Now a priest's past will follow him wherever he goes, thanks to the internet.
Don't tell me about missionaries. My daughter and her husband are real missionaries--in Africa.
Why didn't Stravinskas and his lap dog go to a third world country if they wanted to experience the sacrifice and deprivation of REAL missionary life?
And another thing--why did Stravinskas and Gregoris change the name of their "Priestly Society" from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri to the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman?
Harder to trace their past with a name change?
This is only the tip of the iceberg of the "new" scandal, which is a financial scandal to equal the sexual scandal.
For thirty years of the sexual scandal, the offenders were "treated" and sent on to other parishes or other dioceses where they were unknown and could find new victims.
Now a pattern is emerging similar to that one, where embezzlers are allowed to set up their own cozy little "fraternities" and "oratories" and "societies" --of course, with all checks made out to them, not the parish, not the diocese--and after they milk one place dry, it's on to the next.
Many of these embezzlers embrace the homosexual lifestyle and use their church funds to indulge in vacations in the Bahamas, weekends in Vegas, buying trinkets for their "boys"--like new cars and gold jewelry-- and when anyone in the parish objects, the whistleblowers are smeared by the Lavender gangs and their flunkies.
This happened recently to my brother-in-law's parish in Queens, New York. It is the new scam--the new disgrace of the Church.
Wherever ther's a Bishop dopey enough, or senile enough, or corrupt enough, to let them in.
pastas pastas pastas pastas pastas pastas pastas
Definitely sounds like the current administrator and company. I always forget to put in "temporary". They just prefer Paris, Rome and those are only the ones we know about.
Sounds like you have a personal axe to grind with Father Stravinskas. Why are you so personally interested in what is going on here? You seem to have all this intimate knowledge of what Father is about and what kind of person he is.
You don't really know any more than what the lynch mob is telling you on the phone or in private emails. It is interesting how they have credibilty with you , but no one else on this forum does.
The only reason I'm back posting here after two weeks is to figure out what the link is with you and the lynch mob.
Here's my hunch:
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.
Seeing your posts, one member of the lynch mob, non-Lithuanian who has been instrumental in seeing that this whole mess made it to the media in the first place, contacted you with "the truth" about the Omaha story.
So now you appear on the Free Republic thread spewing your lines about the "evil" fathers and their supposedly sordid dealings, though there is no evidence to support your accusations at all, no matter how badly you wish there were.
You have no proof of anything. And your source here in Omaha has been remiss in letting you know that there has been no evidence of criminal activity. You can throw out accusations, but you really look like a fool because you are creating these huge conspiracy theories full of speculation.
You really aren't doing the Church any good when you try to bring down priests that aren't guilty of crimes. Your zealousness has clouded your judgement here.
Kind of off-topic, but here is the story of the thieving gay pastor at my b-i-l's parish. It's old news, but a good example of what I mentioned up above.
‘Sins of The Father’ Priest Living At St. Gertrude’s Sentenced For Embezzlement By Gary G. Toms
In the latest saga involving misconduct by Catholic priests, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced this week that the former pastor of St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church, in Ozone Park, has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $95,000 in parish funds. The priest, John Thompson, whose address is listed as 336 Beach 38 Street (St. Gertrude’s Church) also admitted that much of the money was used to pay for credit cards, a vacation rental in Mexico, trips to Florida, and a list of other personal expenses. A sentence of five years probation was handed down, and in addition, the former priest must pay back all of the money he stole from the parish. Thompson has since made an initial payment of $10,000 toward full restitution.
"The defendant has been held to account for his wrongdoing. He has admitted his guilt, waived his right to an appeal, and agreed to pay back every penny of the more than $95,000 that he stole and improperly used for his personal benefit," said Brown.
Thompson had served as pastor of the St. Elizabeth’s Church from 1997 until his resignation in March. On September 17, 2002, he pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Grosso, who imposed sentencing.
According to the District Attorney, the investigation began in June when the principal of St. Elizabeth’s School, Barbara Samide, told prosecutors she believed that the pastor had been spending church and school funds without properly substantiating his expenditures. Samide stated that in addition to Thompson having a homosexual relationship, the priest was using money that was earmarked for the elementary school to purchase expensive gifts for his lover (identified only as an 18-year-old man named "Jonathan" - who was living in the St. Elizabeth’s rectory) and pay for trips to gay resorts in Florida. She noted that the school's budget was about $250,000 in the red, and Father Thompson got rid of the parish committee that was in charge of keeping an eye on tuition collection.
Samide went on to note that when she tried to approach the officials of the diocese to discuss her concerns, she was basically shunned, told to keep her mouth shut, or was told that the matter would be handled by church officials. Fueled by a growing church scandal, Samide threatened to take the information she had to prosecutors, and it was only at that point that Father Thompson resigned. He was then shipped to St. Gertrude's Church, but was not given an official title. However, the priest did take part in conducting religious services.
When The Wave reported on the story back in June, it was not clear if the priest was still living at the rectory, as there were unconfirmed reports that the priest had left and was living with members of his family.
Keep on guessing, and keep on digging a hole for your two "champions".
The truth will be out soon enough.
:o)
Works for me ---- I'd like to be from PA
pastas
oops, pastas
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