|
The Next Big Scandal in the Church?
By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
April 23, 2015
http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html
Today's online edition of the National Catholic Reporter features a story by Monica Clark about the arrest of Msgr. Hien Minh Nguyen, a priest and former judicial vicar of the Diocese of San Jose, on charges of fraud and tax evasion. According to the article, Msgr. Minh Nguyen was indicted for depositing parish checks, totaling $19,000, into his personal bank account, and failing to report over $1 million in income on his federal tax returns.
Much like the sexual abuse scandal uncovered by the Boston Globe in 2002, this arrest and indictment will come as no surprise to those involved in church governance in the United States. Since as early as 2007 bishops and Chancery officials have been warned that the 'next big scandal' in the Catholic Church would be its financial management, and those same individuals have been called upon to increase internal controls and other protections against misappropriation of funds and other fiscal mismanagement.
Much like the instructions for the handling of sexual misconduct by clergy, these warnings and suggestions have largely been ignored by those in governance in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. And, much like the mishandling of accusations of sexual abuse, significant problems have arisen and then have been deliberately kept from the knowledge of the faithful. The most obvious example of this is the theft of more than $600,000 over a 17-year period by the former comptroller, Scott Domeier, through a scheme of graft and kickbacks. Although Domeier was finally removed from his position in 2012, the irregular accounting practices which he oversaw were hardly a secret. I originally raised concerns about them with the Archdiocesan CFO in 2009, only to be told to stay out of it. It was only when an outside vendor complained that the matter was dealt with.
Domeier was not the first lay employee of the Archdiocese (including the Catholic Spirit) to be charged for such crimes, nor is theft and other forms of fiscal misconduct limited to lay workers. Since the warning from the USCCB in 2007, the Archdiocese has repaid $30,000 taken from estate of a woman under the conservatorship of a parish priest, Father Corey Belden, to avoid prosecution of the priest, who apparently misappropriated the funds to fuel a gambling addiction. It froze parish accounts opened by a foreign priest who was using the parish's tax ID number to 'hold' money that had been collected for charities and dioceses in Africa. In 2012, the Archdiocese conducted a parallel investigation to the criminal investigation by the Maplewood Police Department after Father Rodger Bauman accepted a personal gift of $120,000 from a 99-year-old former parishioner. The Archdiocesan investigation determined that Father Bauman had written out the check himself, because of the diminished capability of the man making the gift. And, in 2013, an internal investigation into an extortion attempt made against an Archdiocese priest (who was also involved in prostitution) turned up evidence that the priest had acquired significant assets, including property, through a scheme of double-dipping and having his parish reimburse him for personal expenses. To my knowledge, all these men remain priests of the Archdiocese.
Interestingly, the story out of San Jose did not immediately call to my mind any of these stories. Instead, my thoughts turned to a Vietnamese priest serving in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis who was the subject of two internal investigations and one external investigation in approximately 2003-2004. The first of the two internal investigations, which was prompted by external reports of the misconduct, stemmed from the priest's manipulation of an 89-year old widow who was legally blind. If I remember correctly, the Archdiocese investigation concluded that the priest had used his religious influence to gain control of her financial resources, including almost $20,000 during the woman's life and the vast majority of her estate when she died.
The second internal investigation was of the priest's administration of parish funds. Much like the situation in San Jose, the investigation concluded that the priest diverted money to purposes other than what it was collected for, misappropriated parish funds for his own personal use, and that he altered parish checks prior to presenting them to the bank. As one might expect of the W.D.O.E., parish trustees and other stakeholders were aware of the second investigation, but never informed of the first. And, the priest was permitted to continue as pastor of the parish even after his malfeasance was uncovered.
I could go on and on recounting examples of how the warning of a second scandal, like the warnings of the first, have been ignored in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Instead, however, I will simply be content to point out that the stories we have heard of fiscal mismanagement by priests and lay employees of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis are only the tip of the iceberg, and that the true extent of the problem remains hidden.
|