ROME
The Guardian (UK)
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Friday 19 December 2014
The Franciscan order of monks has announced it is in grave financial difficulty after the discovery of a massive fraud.
An internal investigation begun four months ago has found that some monks who ran the Franciscans’ endowment engaged in “questionable financial activities” that have emptied the 800-year-old order’s coffers.
The Franciscans are a community within the Catholic church who follow St Francis of Assisi, who was known for advocating a life of poverty.
The order’s financial woes were disclosed in a rare open letter published this week by American monk, Michael Perry, the Franciscans’ minister general.
He painted a desperate picture of an order whose viability is in doubt and facing a “significant burden of debt” as a result of the deception. He also cast blame outside the church. “These questionable activities also involve people who are not Franciscan but who appear to have played a central role,” he said in the letter.
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