Frankly, the information in this article does not come as any great surprise to me -- the financial oversight policies in place in most dioceses are such that embezzlement is almost certain to be caught at some point. And given that every parish -- plus the diocese and its subsidiary agencies -- have separate accounts, it isn't all that shocking that someone, somewhere, will try to put their finger in the till.

A survey by researchers at Villanova University has found that 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen.

The Catholic Church has some of the most rigorous financial guidelines of any denomination, specialists in church ethics said, but the survey found that the guidelines were often ignored in parishes. And when no one is looking, the cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the churchÂ’s bank account.

“As a faith-based organization, we place a lot of trust in our folks,” said Chuck Zech, a co-author of the study and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova.

“We think if you work for a church — you’re a volunteer or a priest — the last thing on your mind is to do something dishonest,” Mr. Zech said. “But people are people, and there’s a lot of temptation there, and with the cash-based aspect of how churches operate, it’s pretty easy.”

Specialists in church ethics said they believed this was the first study to assess the extent of embezzlement in a denomination.

The reality is that most large organizations face some sort of attempt at embezzlement at some point. A local public university just lost a lot of money to a crooked professor. The school district where I work recently had a case involving an accounting clerk siphoning off enough funds to pay the salaries of three or four first-year teachers or a couple of computer labs. The Episcopal Church lost millions a couple of years ago to a crooked staff member in their national office. What I'm saying is that financial fraud happens wherever there is lots of money floating around.

Indeed, I'd love to see what a study of other denominations would show.

Posted by: Greg at 11:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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