RHODE ISLAND
News 12

Updated: February 22, 2013
By The Associated Press MICHELLE R. SMITH

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – (AP) — A former priest for the disgraced Roman Catholic religious order the Legion of Christ said in sworn testimony that he witnessed financial improprieties at the order’s operation in Rome, including the founder’s use of large amounts of cash without any accounting, and said he believed the order’s founder and then-second-in-command gave gifts to people at the Vatican to curry favor with them.

A spokesman for the Legion said the testimony concerned things that happened years ago, and that the order’s accounting practices are now stricter.

Father Stephen Fichter, who left the Legion in 2000 and is now a parish priest in New Jersey, gave the testimony in a deposition in November 2011 as part of a lawsuit brought by the niece of an elderly Rhode Island widow, Gabrielle…