BishopAccountability.org
	Editorial: St. Leo Deserves Answers The News-Press July 20, 2011 http://www.news-press.com/article/20110720/OPINION/107200331/1002/NEWS01/Editorial-St-Leo-deserves-answers?odyssey=nav|head The congregation of St. Leo Catholic Church in Bonita Springs deserves clear and honest answers about charges that their suspended pastor misused more than $1 million in church funds. They have been divided by the continuing and painful drama over these and earlier sensational charges against the Rev. Stan Strycharz. Why hasn't Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice pursued these new charges against Strycharz with law enforcement authorities? A diocese spokesman has said only that no civil charges have been brought against the priest, and that canon law processes will be followed. An employee who misappropriates an organization's funds on this scale should face criminal charges. If he's guilty as accused by the bishop - and he has many fierce supporters who say he is innocent - Strycharz has betrayed his congregants as well as the church hierarchy. Those congregants have a right to see if the evidence can pass a prosecutor's muster. The priest also owes the public an explanation, and the public deserves it. Now that he has been publicly attacked by the bishop twice, he should state his case. Dewane alleges the priest misused about $665,000 in church money to pay his personal credit card statements. In a letter to parishioners, he also alleges that $171,877 went to the former church office manager for her children's education, and $149,705 to Strycharz's brother, who owns a Naples painting company. Another $45,000 was misappropriated, the bishop claims. Strycharz's defenders say all the expenses have an innocent explanation, and that Strycharz's administration of funds was approved numerous times by diocesan authorities. They say attorneys are preparing a defamation suit against the bishop. Dewane put Strycharz on paid administrative leave in 2010 pending a review of parishioner complaints that he broke his vow of celibacy and other issues. Strycharz's supporters formed Save the Southwest Florida Diocese, gathering hundreds of signatures on petitions to clear him and bring him back to the parish. This controversy has shaken a church whose members look to it for guidance in faith and morals, and who are suffering in this morass.
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