GUAM
Pacific Daily News
Written by
Malorie Paine
Pacific Daily News
The Archdiocese of Agana yesterday disclosed specific details of alleged financial mismanagement by Monsignor James Benavente, the former administrator of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica and The Catholic Cemeteries.
An Archdiocesan internal review report, which was distributed inside yesterday’s issue of Umatuna Si Yu’os, the archdiocese’s newspaper, alleges Benavente used funds for the two entities interchangeably, used clergy stipends to make personal credit card payments and used cemetery funds to pay for his 20th anniversary reception, along with other allegations.
“The Archdiocese of Agana in the past several months has been conducting an internal review of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica and The Catholic Cemeteries of Guam, Inc. following a determination by the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, that The Catholic Cemeteries was not auditable,” the review report stated.
The report also states during Benavente’s time as administrator of the two entities, he developed projects that resulted in the Archdiocese incurring $7 million in debt.
Pacific Daily News made several attempts to contact Benavente yesterday, but was unsuccessful.
Tim Rohr, a friend of Benavente, said Benavente had been asked by Vatican officials not to respond to the allegations.
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