VERMONT
Vermont Public Radio
By ALEX KEEFE
A Catholic priest was placed on leave from a Burlington church last summer for misspending more than $23,000 in parish funds and making inappropriate comments toward staffers, VPR has learned.
Father Richard O’Donnell had been the priest at Christ the King St. Anthony Parish church until he was placed on an indefinite leave of absence around late July 2015, according to the Most Rev. Christopher Coyne, the bishop of Burlington.
An internal diocesan audit and a private outside investigation found that O’Donnell did not break any laws, Coyne told VPR in an interview Monday. But it found O’Donnell spent “exorbitant” amounts of parish money on gifts for staff, personal gas mileage reimbursement and lavish tips when he went out to eat.
“He wasn’t taking the money himself and he wasn’t doing these things [for] himself,” Coyne said.
“It was just basically that there was a problem with his being overly generous with … parish money. He just shouldn’t have been using it that way.”
O’Donnell also got in trouble with the diocese for “inappropriate behavior and language towards staff” at the church and at the Christ the King Catholic school, Coyne said.
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