By Ralph De La Cruz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 24, 2009
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpralph0224pnfeb24,0,955720.column
I suppose it's good that priests can be so inept at being bad.
Facing charges of grand theft, the Rev. Francis Benedict Guinan conceded he cooked the books at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach. That he had indeed used church donations — money intended to help heal broken souls and feed the poor — to go gambling in Vegas.
Six times.
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| The Rev. Francis Guinan is handcuffed as he is taken into custody in Palm Beach County Circuit Court after he was found guilty Monday of grand theft of more than $20,000 but less than $100,000. Guinan was on trial for grand theft of more than $100,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach. Photo by Lannis Waters |
And the Bahamas. Three times. Not to mention countless Florida resort outings.
But it was OK, he explained. Because the Catholic Church didn't really consider it stealing. As long as he took the money $50,000 at a time, he could do with it as he saw fit. Even if the money was used to support his gambling, golfing and girlfriend, which sounds more like an expense account suited for Tony Soprano than a priest.
Father Francis even used the money to pay for the parochial school tuition of his girlfriend's son, which may have been the best use of parish funds during his 20 months at the church
Thankfully, a jury in West Palm Beach had a bit tougher definition of stealing than Father Francis did. After deliberating less than four hours, jurors found him guilty of grand theft of $20,000 to $100,000 from the church.
That conviction comes a month after his predecessor at St. Vincent, John Skehan, pleaded guilty to grand theft. The poor flock at St. Vincent — fleeced back to back by their shepherds.
Beyond the loss of money, the damage to trust and the assault on logic, what's so troubling about this is it points again to a serious lack of oversight in Catholic churches.
Accounting books were destroyed and records falsified during the reign of at least two administrations at St. Vincent.
These places have apparently had less oversight than banks and securities traders.
Guinan's best defense was that the books were so messed up, no one could really say how much he had taken. And it worked — to a degree.
Rather than being found guilty of stealing $487,000, as the prosecution alleged, Father Francis was found guilty of stealing less than $100,000, which should draw a lighter sentence.
Goes to show you: better to have a good lawyer than a good priest.
Then there was the sobering spectacle of seeing priests and former priests on the witness stand, saying there was nothing wrong with operating slush funds or using parishioners' donations to live the high life.
"It's almost impossible for you people to understand what it is to be a priest," said the Rev. Thomas Rynne, of Jensen Beach.
Rynne spoke about the stress of constantly dealing with people's dark secrets and hidden sins.
"You can reach a stage where one day you wake up and feel like screaming," Rynne testified. "You feel like saying, 'Good Lord, how did I get into this?' In that situation I would do it [use parish money for trips], yes."
Rynne, who has been a priest since 1956, never has.
Hey, I'll concede that a stressed-out man of God is entitled to a little resuscitative Vegas vacation every once in a while. Maybe every year. Or two.
But SIX in 20 months? C'mon, Father. Don King doesn't go to Vegas that often.
Coming after the church's decades-long reluctance to investigate and expose pedophiles, this adds to the portrait of a dysfunctional, undisciplined organization incapable of monitoring itself.
A decade ago, my wife, Maria, and I gave up our affiliation with the Catholic Church — despite deep emotional and multi-generational ties to the institution — because of the church's scandalous response — or lack of it — to the pedophile crisis.
And yet, because the church is such an important part of our past, our identity, I keep looking for reasons to come back.
Monday sure didn't provide them.
Ralph De La Cruz's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Local section and in Sunday Lifestyle.
He can be reached at rdelacruz@SunSentinel.com, 561-243-6522, or 954-356-4727.
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