Talk of Gambling Addiction 'A Joke'
By Gina Damron
Detroit Free Press
March 31, 2008
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/NEWS05/803310324
After a weekend town hall meeting with their embattled priest, parishioners from St. Dunstan Catholic Church in Garden City said Sunday that they plan to keep working to have him reinstated.
And they wanted it on the record that the Rev. Don Demmer does not have a gambling problem, despite an erroneous report in Sunday's Free Press saying he admitted to having one.
 |
| The Rev. Don Demmer was accused of inappropriately using personal donations. |
He said Sunday that he made a joke at the town hall meeting to the effect of: "I have a gambling problem. You may have read about it in the newspaper."
His remark drew laughs from the crowd, many of whom have made calls and sent letters to the archdiocese.
Demmer has been on leave from the Garden City church since before the archdiocese began investigating accusations of embezzlement involving a former office employee of the church, along with unpaid federal payroll taxes.
He's now working as a priest at St. Colette Church in Livonia.
His former parishioners formed a group called Catholics For Justice. Tom Jakubczak, a church member, said parishioners are going to continue contacting the archdiocese to reinstate Demmer.
"Longtime Catholics are anxious about why the archdiocese doesn't want to talk to the people," the 48-year-old Milford resident said.
Contact GINA DAMRON at 248-351-3293 or gdamron@freepress.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.