Unholy Lifestyles
Father Francis Guinan of the St.Vincent Ferrer Catholic church in Delray Beach, Florida has hired an attorney to defend him against charges of unholy malfeasance. Father Guinan, alongside Father John Skehan are both facing charges of embezzlement.
They will face their accusers in court, and hope that kindness, compassion and understanding will descend their way, not from the heavens, but from their parishioners. After all, they extended to those who formerly sat in the pews of the church they represented, kindliness and caution in the ways of the world. They meant nothing but the best, extending God's love to their faithful.
From whose offering-plate donations for the past twenty years, at a rough estimate, they managed to fund a rather palatial lifestyle. The 66-year-old Mr. Guinan's lawyer asserts his client has done nothing wrong. That the funds he is accused of purloining were for the purpose of making cash payments to church employees. And there lies the rub, or there rubs the lie the wrong way.
Facts being unveiled during the course of the investigation, and according to the investigating authorities, point to an "intimate" relationship with a former church bookkeeper toward whom much of the Mr. Guinan's swifted cash was directed. To support her lifestyle, and for the purpose of accompanying his lover on luxury vacations. Everyone has their private life, after all.
The $800,000 of donations which the duo are accused of taking to flesh out their lifestyles, does not represent their total emoluments of the past twenty years, however. According to the statute of limitations the priests may be charged only with such thefts occurring after 2001. Speculation has it, however, that the total of their self-availment was likely closer to $8-million.
That would make for a fairly rich lifestyle, no doubt about it. Father Skehan for his part, has plead guilty to the charges of collecting unto himself those donations entrusted to their care each Sunday from collection plates. He felt entitled to those generous stipends personally for the excellence of a job well done, obviously, in serving his parishioners.
Nothing parsimonious about his gifts to himself; those donations to his lifestyle enabled him to purchase luxury homes, and to pay for much-appreciated and extravagant gambling trips to Las Vegas, as well as funding his numismatic passion for rare coinage. He will perhaps pay rather dearly for that rarefied lifestyle, facing up to 31 years' incarceration.
They both used those 'found' funds to open offshore bank accounts to grow their lifestyles. In the interim, the purloined cash was handily hidden in the church ceiling tiles. The good Father Skehan has seen the light and resolved to accept responsibility for his actions, hence the guilty plea.
And he is gladdened by the inspiring reality that those whom he sinned against, while lecturing each Sunday against the avails of evil-doing and the misery of the sinner in this life and the next, stand stalwartly behind him, willing to support him and to speak on his behalf. So, then, you can hoodwink people and have them thank you for it, too.
As for the former Reverend Guinan, his lawyer says "Just because both priests worked at the same church and one pleads guilty, it doesn't mean my guy is guilty". So there, y'all, stuff that in your collection plate!
They will face their accusers in court, and hope that kindness, compassion and understanding will descend their way, not from the heavens, but from their parishioners. After all, they extended to those who formerly sat in the pews of the church they represented, kindliness and caution in the ways of the world. They meant nothing but the best, extending God's love to their faithful.
From whose offering-plate donations for the past twenty years, at a rough estimate, they managed to fund a rather palatial lifestyle. The 66-year-old Mr. Guinan's lawyer asserts his client has done nothing wrong. That the funds he is accused of purloining were for the purpose of making cash payments to church employees. And there lies the rub, or there rubs the lie the wrong way.
Facts being unveiled during the course of the investigation, and according to the investigating authorities, point to an "intimate" relationship with a former church bookkeeper toward whom much of the Mr. Guinan's swifted cash was directed. To support her lifestyle, and for the purpose of accompanying his lover on luxury vacations. Everyone has their private life, after all.
The $800,000 of donations which the duo are accused of taking to flesh out their lifestyles, does not represent their total emoluments of the past twenty years, however. According to the statute of limitations the priests may be charged only with such thefts occurring after 2001. Speculation has it, however, that the total of their self-availment was likely closer to $8-million.
That would make for a fairly rich lifestyle, no doubt about it. Father Skehan for his part, has plead guilty to the charges of collecting unto himself those donations entrusted to their care each Sunday from collection plates. He felt entitled to those generous stipends personally for the excellence of a job well done, obviously, in serving his parishioners.
Nothing parsimonious about his gifts to himself; those donations to his lifestyle enabled him to purchase luxury homes, and to pay for much-appreciated and extravagant gambling trips to Las Vegas, as well as funding his numismatic passion for rare coinage. He will perhaps pay rather dearly for that rarefied lifestyle, facing up to 31 years' incarceration.
They both used those 'found' funds to open offshore bank accounts to grow their lifestyles. In the interim, the purloined cash was handily hidden in the church ceiling tiles. The good Father Skehan has seen the light and resolved to accept responsibility for his actions, hence the guilty plea.
And he is gladdened by the inspiring reality that those whom he sinned against, while lecturing each Sunday against the avails of evil-doing and the misery of the sinner in this life and the next, stand stalwartly behind him, willing to support him and to speak on his behalf. So, then, you can hoodwink people and have them thank you for it, too.
As for the former Reverend Guinan, his lawyer says "Just because both priests worked at the same church and one pleads guilty, it doesn't mean my guy is guilty". So there, y'all, stuff that in your collection plate!
Labels: Human Relations, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 12:55 PM
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