By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post
March 8, 2007
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/03/08/0308priests.html
West Palm Beach — Palm Beach Diocese officials were uncovering evidence of misappropriated money at a church run by one of two priests now accused of mishandling $8.6 million in offertory money - even as it put him in control of St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, confidential church documents released Thursday show.
An internal diocesan audit dated Aug. 31, 2003, revealed problems with the way collection plate money was tracked at a Palm Beach Gardens parish headed by the Rev. Francis B. Guinan, who was arrested last year along with the Rev. John A. Skehan on grand theft charges.
Guinan and Skehan now are accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of offertory dollars in what has become one of the biggest financial scandals in the modern history of the U.S. Catholic church.
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| Former Delray priests Francis B. Guinan (left) and John A. Skehan are accused of misappropriating $8.6 million from their church. |
Rather than alert the police to the accounting problems at St. Patrick in 2003, the diocese permitted Guinan to take over at St. Vincent - where investigators now estimate he made off with more than $300,000 in less than two years - according to statements made by Denis Hamel, the diocese financial administrator.
Hamel told investigators the accounting problems at St. Patrick "probably did not get the full consideration it would have under normal circumstances," according to a police report.
The internal audit, Hamel's statements to police and confidential diocesan letters detailing were among more than a thousand pages of documents released by prosecutors Thursday.
Both former priests have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are free on bond.
Diocese spokeswoman Alexis Walkenstein said that the diocese will not comment on the released documents "due to the active nature of the investigation."
E-mail: Michael_LaForgia@pbpost.com
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