BishopAccountability.org
	Archbishop Talks with Parish about Missing $60k KOAM December 2, 2010 http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13604459 St. Louis' archbishop is trying to assure an eastern Missouri Roman Catholic parish after an audit of its bookkeeping found $300,000 in discrepancies - and $60,000 still unaccounted for - following the departure of its priest. Investigations into the missing money centered on the Rev. Dennis Zacheis, who resigned last year before the accounting issues surfaced from St. Anthony Catholic Church in Sullivan, about 65 miles southwest of St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday. A probe by Franklin County's prosecutor led to no charges being filed against Zacheis, according to the archdiocese. Zacheis' whereabouts were not immediately known Thursday. During a visit with parishioners Wednesday night, Archbishop Robert Carlson prayed for healing and said the archdiocese turned up $300,000 in audit-triggering discrepancies after Zacheis stepped down. He left, the archdiocese said in April 2009, for health reasons. Carlson, who said he reported the missing funds to police, noted that much of the $300,000 "came back to help the parish in a variety of ways," though auditors still could not account for $60,311. Carlson opted to reimburse the parish that amount from the archdiocesan insurance fund. Yet some parishioners believe the amount of missing funds could be double the $60,000 Carlson cited. A member of the parish's finance panel, which met with Carlson before the church-wide assembly, said St. Anthony's continued to struggle with the division the issue has caused. "This is a small town, and everybody knows everybody else," Terri Miller said. "(The divide) is hard for us. It's caused some people to leave our parish." The audit repeatedly mentions Zacheis, including an entry that said the priest admitted to an archdiocesan financial official in mid-2009 that he at times used parish funds to pay the electric bill on his Lake of the Ozarks waterfront house because he let "homeless people" live there when he was not occupying it. Zacheis has served at several parishes in the archdiocese, running into trouble with parishioners in the past. In 2004, a parishioner insurrection at St. Alban Roe in the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood forced him out even though he was supported by then-Archbishop Raymond Burke. Parishioners at Wednesday night's meeting told the Post-Dispatch that Carlson told them the archdiocese had found financial discrepancies at two other unidentified churches, and that those matters have been turned over to prosecutors. Alan Vickers, a St. Anthony's council member, said he considered Zacheis a friend, though the allegations of misspending "hurt me." "I'm a Christian, and I feel if there was something done wrong, it'll come out, if not on this earth, then it'll come out when he meets his maker," Vickers said.
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