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.
Shhhhh!
Don't tell the Religion Mod!
You've certainly mellowed since Saturday night.
Regarding posts #324 and #329....you both seem pretty sure Dr. Bond is reading this thread. Interesting.
How do you know this?
Sorry, that second one should have been #349.
#324 and #349.
I've noticed that the few exchanges between the two of you are strange, to say the least, and for a long time Angelas/Concerned Catholic wouldn't even answer Concerned Catholic/Angelas' posts.
Anybody know any good lawyer jokes?
Of course you want to focus on other issues! YOU GOT CAUGHT!
You act as though I've committed a cardinal sin by seeking out information before forming an opinion about a serious matter. Yes I asked "various people" about "a certain priest" but ONLY ONE of them knew about the other two. And his name is Bond.
I hope like hell that somebody in Father's camp shows all of your hateful, scandalous posts on this thread to Archbishop Curtiss. He ought to know the caliber of people with whom he's dealing and he ought to take everything you say with a grain of salt because you're all liars.
And let's not forget that you defamed TWO priests in the course of your this witch hunt!
The posts on this thread by the anti-P.M.J.S. crowd are a textbook example of the end justifying the means.
Your loyalty to your homeland and your church buildings dwarf any loyalty you might have to God and His Church. The archbishop would be wise to tell you to grow up and get lost.
You should have quit while you were ahead.
"I believe we have all said how we feel and since we continue to disagree, I really want to focus my efforts on other issues."
I agree. Her post in response to yours is another example that there is no reasoning with this woman. Speaking of defamation, what do you think she is doing to Dr. Bond!
I say we pray for her and us to St Anthony to see us through these trying times and cease posting to these vicious people.
"cease posting"?
Sounds like a great idea.
I don't know about this Bond thing, so I'll just comment on the rest of this post. Using words like "hell" to get your point across (or lack thereof), doesn't sound like the good God fearing person you've been purporting to be in your posts and I'm almost certain YOU are keeping track of all these "scandalous" posts (leaving out all of yours and your friends, of course) , so you can turn them over to the Archbishop, who I'm sure will appreciate coming from someone NOT of his Archdiocese, complaining about people who have been parishioners for over 50 years. Yes, I do have loyalty for my parents' homeland which is mostly Catholic and our parish, which is an extension of the homeland. Besides, I don't think there is much of a defference between our loyalty and your loyalty to the "temporary" administrator.
Re-read my posts. I've never tried to pass myself off as "holy", mostly because I'm not so much. I wish I were though. It baffling to me that a chronic liar would be offended by the word 'hell'.
I'm sure someone is gathering all of these up but it's not me. I don't have the time, energy, or interest, for that matter, to copy all of these posts. If someone does hand them over to the archbishop I pray that they also hand over mine because they will assist in destroying your credibility.
It doesn't matter where I'm from. The facts speak for themselves. You lied and defamed, I had the facts, you got caught.
My work here is done.
First, I have never said anything in any of my posts as to whether or not they were fact. Most of my posts have been responses to you and the people who agree with your stories. As to my being a liar and using the word "hell", you don't know who I really am, so how can you even say this ? I can turn around and say the same thing about you and all your "facts", but I don't.
It most certainly does matter where you're from because if you're not directly involved you should just follow the story from the outside.
When you say "my work here is done" does that mean you won't post anymore comments ? If so, Buh-Bye !!!!
"It most certainly does matter where you're from because if you're not directly involved you should just follow the story from the outside."
Tell that to Palladin!
Go Huskers!
Just an FYI to whoever is still interested . Some of you may have already seen this article, anyway here it is
Thanks for the updates.
How was Stravinskas's trip to Rome with the old ladies? Did he and his very close buddy room together?
When does Stravinskas get the boot? Has he been indicted yet?
I'm happy that your parish will remain open, hopefully under new management!
Yes, I saw this. Here is another person that shows the pattern the PS (or now known as PMS)has engaged in for years!
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