NYT: 85 percent of Catholic dioceses 'discovered embezzlement'

RAW STORYPublished: Thursday January 4, 2007

A new study reveals that a vast majority of responding Catholic dioceses uncovered financial fraud in their churches, The New York Times will report tomorrow.

"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," write Laurie Goodstein and Stephanie Strom, "with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen."

Despite the Catholic Church's rigorous financial guidelines, the study found that "the guidelines were often ignored in parishes," according to the Times article. "[T]he cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the church's bank account," Goodstein and Strom write.

The treasurer of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said they were aware of the study and were mulling ways to help parishes tighten their financial oversight, reports the Times.

Excerpts from the registration-restriced article, now available online, follow...

"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."
...
"The Villanova study does not come as a surprise," said Bishop Dennis M. Schnurr, treasurer of the bishops' conference. "This is something that the bishops in this country have been looking at for some time. They are aware of a need to look for mechanisms that can assist parishes in accountability and transparency."

Mr. Zech and his co-author, Robert West, a professor of accounting at Villanova, did not set out to look for embezzlement. They were conducting a study of internal financial controls in Catholic dioceses and sent a battery of questions to chief financial officers in the nation's 174 Catholic dioceses; 78 responded. Mr. Zech said he was surprised that so many dioceses had detected embezzlement. In 93 percent of those cases, police reports were filed.

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