BishopAccountability.org
	Missing Church Money Probed Former Pastor of Joliet Parish Is under Scrutiny By Hal Dardick, Matthew Walberg and Tom Rybarczyk Chicago Tribune [Joliet] May 2, 2007 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-0705010628may02,1,1905195.story? coll=chi-newslocalssouthwest-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true Nearly four years after Rev. James Radek received his first post as a parish pastor, he abruptly resigned as the spiritual leader of St. Joseph Church in Joliet. Radek cryptically explained in a statement read at mass last May that his departure was "due to stress, accusations and the conflicts of recent times." The accusations, according to internal church documents, were about tens of thousands of dollars in parish funds being unaccounted for during his tenure. The matter is being investigated by the Will County state's attorney's office, said Radek's attorney and a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Joliet. At the time of Radek's resignation, the parish, which serves more than 1,000 families in its 102-year-old downtown church, was borrowing money from the diocese to make ends meet and cutting programs at its school for lack of funding, the documents state. The conflicts were between Radek and the church finance committee that he disbanded three months before his resignation, documents show. Committee members had taken their concerns about Radek's handling of funds to former Bishop Joseph Imesch. Imesch, who stepped down in June at age 75, accepted Radek's explanations for credit card expenses the finance committee had questioned, according to the documents. But in April 2006, six months after Imesch dismissed the financial accusations and a month before Radek's departure, the bishop appeared before a Will County grand jury looking into St. Joseph, Radek and church finances, according to sources who testified. One grand jury witness was a former convict who was falsely identified in a letter Radek presented to the finance committee as a "registered psychologist" treating the pastor, according to church documents and interviews. Radek, who has not been charged with any offense, declined comment last year and could not be reached more recently. His attorney, Daniel Purdom, would only say: "This matter is under investigation. There was certainly a great deal of infighting among members of the church during the time [Radek was pastor.] You have to look and see how people are motivated." Imesch declined to speak on the record. A request to interview Bishop J. Peter Sartain was denied. Diocesan spokesman Douglas Delaney also declined to address the financial issues, noting the state's attorney was looking into the matter. Radek, 44, was ordained in 1989. He is on leave from St. Joseph, but remains a priest in the diocese, Delaney said. A former finance committee member said the financial issues, after Radek took them to other parish advisory groups, led to divisions in the church. "The place where you go for compassion and love ends up being the place where you have confrontation and enmity," said Mike Bruno, 36, a mortgage lender who Radek invited to sit on the finance committee. "It's devastating." Bruno's faith in Christ, if not church hierarchy, remains strong. He still attends mass, unlike some parishioners. "There were people who quit their positions, who quit their roles and quit coming to church and quit being Catholic," Bruno said. "Some people can only absorb that much pain, that much hurt, that much punishment before they physically feel they can't do it anymore." Before his departure, Radek "described a divided parish with conflict and so forth, and we hope that will change," said John Lukancic, the former parish president. "We certainly want the truth to emerge, but as Christians we pray for everyone involved. ... We want everyone to come together, so we can get about the business of healing." Based on issues raised by the finance committee, the diocese commissioned a special audit in August 2004. The auditor estimated church records could not fully account for nearly $44,000 in fiscal 2003 and 2004. She raised questions about Radek's use of a church credit card for almost $19,000 in poorly documented purchases, including more than $3,000 at restaurants, with the church in nearly all cases picking up the full tab. During that period, the church received an estimated $25,000 in fees for baptisms, weddings and votive candles without depositing them in the parish account or documenting their collection and how they were spent, according to the audit and documents. Diocesan policies state: "Offerings received for priestly ministrations such as baptisms, funerals and marriages are considered parish funds and must be deposited in the parish central bank account." After returning from three months of alcohol-abuse rehabilitation at GuestHouse in Rochester, Minn., in late 2004, Radek met with Imesch to discuss the audit, and he gave the bishop a written response. He said he placed money from weddings and baptisms — the sum of which he said was less than the audit showed — into the church's petty cash fund. Diocesan policies state: "Offerings received for priestly ministrations such as baptisms, funerals and marriages are considered parish funds and must be deposited in the parish central bank account." After returning from three months of alcohol-abuse rehabilitation at GuestHouse in Rochester, Minn., in late 2004, Radek met with Imesch to discuss the audit, and he gave the bishop a written response. He said he placed money from weddings and baptisms — the sum of which he said was less than the audit showed — into the church's petty cash fund. "Minor expenses do over time accumulate into substantial numbers," he wrote. But he said he would make a change: "Effective immediately, all funds are to be deposited into the general checking account." Imesch recommended another change. "We reviewed the credit card expenses that the auditor had noted," he stated in a letter to Radek. "I was certainly satisfied with the explanation for the expenditures, though I recommended that you have a separate parish card for parish expenses, apart from your own credit card." The letter, which told Radek to "keep up the good work," did not address the issue of allegedly missing fees. Radek's explanations did not satisfy committee members. Appointed in June 2003, a year after Radek's installation, the committee concluded the audit was incomplete. Church records failed to account for up to $72,300 donated to the church or spent on the credit card, according to a committee analysis. Members also asked him to explain $700 in church credit card charges at restaurants in Chicago, where he owned a condominium on Lake Shore Drive West. Radek presented a letter purportedly written by Thomas Scheier. Radek took Scheier and his wife to dinner as payment for therapy from Scheier, a "registered psychologist" treating the pastor for "low self-esteem, anxiety, and recently, alcohol addiction," it stated. Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation records do not list Scheier as a licensed psychologist. Another state agency, the Department of Corrections, lists Scheier, 25, as an ex-con who spent several months in a boot camp for felony cocaine delivery. He was on parole when the letter was written. Scheier of Naperville confirmed he appeared before the grand jury to testify about the letter, but declined to elaborate, saying Radek "is family." Two months later, after parishioners sought more details from a second accountant hired by Radek, the pastor dissolved the committee, saying he would create a new one with different members, according to sources and documents. Now, Bruno just wants his church whole again. "I want to be part of the healing process," he said. Contact: hdardick@tribune.com, mwalberg@tribune.com, trybarczyk@tribune.com.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.