continue at Pioneer PressThe former accounting director of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been accused of stealing more than $670,000 from the church.
Scott Joseph Domeier, 50, of Cottage Grove, was charged with seven counts of theft by swindle Friday, June 15, in Ramsey County District Court.
According to the criminal complaint, Domeier diverted archdiocese checks to pay personal credit card bills, private school tuition for his children and other personal expenses.
The alleged thefts date to 2008.
"This matter will not affect the archdiocese's ability to meet its financial obligations or other responsibilities, including those to parishes, schools and employees," the archdiocese said Friday.
An independent audit and the archdiocese's insurers determined the total was about $770,000 over eight years, the archdiocese said.
Ouch!
1 comment:
so many leaker diocesan employees...
I am reminded of our Pope's words, "It is sad that there are what you might call professional Catholics who make a living on their Catholicism, but in whom the spring of faith flows only faintly."
Sometimes they outright rob the Church, like this guy.
If I were a Bishop here is how I would staff a diocese, set up a program of 1-2-3 year stints of work for young professionals, mid-20s, people who may be lacking in some experience but are full of zeal to do honest work for the Church, put them in the jobs having to do with finances, PR, newspaper, social media, etc. Keep the number of more senior and experienced (pension track) employees to a bare minimum. You can pay them a living-stipend and provide room/board/insurance (plenty of abandoned convents and rectories out there), spiritual guidance (young people today seem to need some more time to discern their call in life) and maybe even some sort of program towards scholarships at Catholic universities after there work time is up and some networking help. At the very least they would get some solid work experience.
I believe in young people. There are plenty of young and smart Catholics out there who would understand even the most 'behind the scenes' of internal church work (such as finance and accounting) in an evangelistic sense and put in good quality work at a fraction of the cost as a labor love, get a few years in serving the Church and then get out into 'the world' and take that experience with them.
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