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	Delray Church Solvent Despite Priest Misappropriations With Records Seized, Pastor Is Unsure of Worth By Mike Clary Sun-Sentinel September 30, 2006 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ppchurch30 sep30,0,2349338.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines Delray Beach — Two priests may be accused of misappropriating more than $8.6 million from the collection plates, but St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church is far from broke. Thanks to "foundations set up for benefit of our school and church, we are well endowed," said the Rev. Tom Skindeleski, the current pastor. "The problem is, the money didn't go through proper channels, through the diocese." Indeed, Skindeleski, who was named pastor at St. Vincent 11 months ago, said he is unsure just how much money the parish has or what its investments are, since boxes of church records have been seized by the police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. A yearlong investigation into church finances resulted Thursday in charges of grand theft filed against the two priests, John A. Skehan and Frances B. Guinan. Skehan, 79, left the Palm Beach County Jail after posting bond Friday night, while Guinan, 63, was still at large, reportedly on an Australian cruise. An outside auditor hired by the Palm Beach Diocese found that during the tenures of Skehan and Guinan, $8,690,593 in offertory cash was misappropriated. A separate investigation by law officers linked the priests to some $400,000 in misappropriations over a five-year period, the statutory limit of their authority to investigate, according to Delray Beach police spokesman Jeff Messer. Skindeleski took care Friday to say he was not mounting a defense of either of the accused clerics. When he arrived at St. Vincent in October, he said, both the diocesan and the police investigations of church finances were under way, and Guinan had resigned under pressure from Bishop Gerald Barbarito. But Skindeleski said there was a distinction between church funds that may have been stolen, and those misappropriated, or used in ways that may benefit the church. "Father Skehan set up big endowments for the school," he said, offering no details. When he arrived, Skindeleski said, his chief task was "to begin a healing process. At the bishop's request, I spoke at all the Masses, to tell the people we're going to have some stability," he added. Skindeleski, who had been the pastor at Our Lady Queen of the Apostles in Royal Palm Beach, also set up both a pastoral council and "a financial council with some teeth." "I used the words 'accountability' and 'transparency,'" he said. A change in accounting methods at St. Vincent and at the other parishes that serve about 250,000 Roman Catholics in the five-county Palm Beach Diocese were part of what Barbarito and diocese chief financial officer Denis Hamel have described as efforts to improve a previous system under which parish audits were possible only when requested by the pastors. And according to former St. Vincent employees interviewed by Delray Beach police, Skehan and Guinan were unlikely to have requested audits. According to sworn affidavits, witnesses told police that each Monday Skehan, and then Guinan, his successor as pastor, directed church employees to skim thousands of dollars in cash from the previous day's collection plates and funnel the money into what the police call "slush accounts." From those accounts, police said the priests bankrolled secret lives that included financially supporting longtime girlfriends, investing in property in Florida and in Ireland and gambling junkets. The 15-page probable-cause affidavit released by police describes various church employees involved in counting out the Sunday offertory, with both Skehan and Guinan pocketing cash for themselves, directing the amounts and bank accounts to be used for deposits and issuing reminders that diocese officials were not to be told of the true Sunday count. One former church employee, Colleen Head, told police Skehan warned her to keep bank deposits under $10,000 to avoid having to file currency transaction reports. "Head later recalled that if any tellers questioned all the cash money going into the hidden accounts, she would tell Skehan and he would change banks to avoid suspicion," Delray Beach detective Thomas Whatley wrote in the affidavit. West Palm Beach attorney Michael Salnick, who was hired by Head and her mother, who also worked at the church, said the two women trusted Skehan and Guinan but began to suspect money was being misappropriated. "I think they realized that something was wrong, and if they went to the church it might stay in the church," he said. "That institution would have tried to keep things within the entity if they were going to try to protect Skehan and Guinan." According to recent reports in church bulletins, the weekly collections at St. Vincent can total as much as $15,000. In the wake of the scandal at St. Vincent, Hamel said, the diocese now requires that all church properties be audited every two years and be regulated by "internal controls at each location ... to safeguard the financial assets of the church or school." Palm Beach Gardens attorney Edward Ricci, a prominent church fundraiser long critical of church financial-oversight practices, expressed dissatisfaction with new audit guidelines that provide no verification of all revenue and expenditures. "It's a charade. It's a cover-up," said Ricci. "They are not auditing the books. "The way to have more accountability is to set up independent, mandatory [financial] review committees and have independent auditors come in and do full audits, and do it without warning. Just come in and do it." The costs of such full audits could be very expensive, Ricci said, "so they are not doing it." "Catholics still put a lot of cash in collections baskets. If they are skimming off the collections baskets it's very hard to catch them. The only way to catch them is look at their personal expenditures." The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has produced a sheaf of finance and management guidelines, but the standards are voluntary. As a result, practices for handling money vary in Catholic churches, according to the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow with the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, making it possible for small amounts to be lifted from church coffers. But the St. Vincent case involves millions of dollars, according to police. "The Catholic Church looks huge, and taken together, it is," Reese said. "But dioceses don't have the structure of a big multinational corporation. The system works on trust. And trust can be abused." Even strict accounting measures may be too late for some parishioners. Skindeleski said some St. Vincent regulars may stop coming to church, and the offertory may suffer. "My task now is to heal the wounds, bind them, and try to get the people back together, pick up the scattered pieces." One St. Vincent parishioner who will not be deterred is Delray Beach developer Frank McKinney. "Do I understand feelings of betrayal, yes," he said. "But I learned earlier than most not to pass judgment. Our church is going to suffer greatly. "As a faithful Catholic, you give from the heart. You don't follow the money into the counting room." Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek and Staff Writers Peter Franceschina, Jerome Burdi, James D. Davis, Maria Herrera and Madeline Baró Diaz contributed to this report. Mike Clary can be reached at mwclary@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6629.
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