Fraudulent Practices ?

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
July 2, 2015

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Frequent readers of this blog will note that I have commented before on the practice of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis of grossly exaggerating the number of Catholics in its territory. I have pointed out that doing so renders all efforts at strategic planning questionable, if not ridiculous, and can also cause us to have to pay larger than necessary subsidies to affiliated organizations such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Elsewhere, this practice is having even more serious consequences. As the UPI reported yesterday, the Catholic Diocese of Oslo, Norway, its bishop, and its CFO are accused of defrauding the Norwegian government of more than $5 million. The government, which subsidizes religious organizations based on the number of members, claims that the Diocese used fraudulent methods to register more than 65,000 new members during the period from 2010 to 2014.

Thankfully, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis does not receive this kind of federal assistance. Parishes with schools, on the other hand, do participate in USDA School Nutrition Programs such as the Free-and-Reduced Lunch Program. Can you imagine if, on top of all of our other troubles, it was determined that an Archdiocesan parish (with its corporate board of Archbishop, Vicar General, Pastor, and two lay trustees) was found to have been defrauding this government program by deliberately inflating its number of enrolled students who qualify for this benefits?

Stay tuned.