THE removal of a popular Roman Catholic
priest who church officials
said used money from his parish in White Plains to feed a gambling
habit came as a surprise to many parishioners when they learned about
it last week.
The Rev. Patrick Dunne, who had been pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows
Church since 1991, is undergoing counseling for addiction in a
rehabilitation center, church officials said.
and
MAHA, Neb. � A Roman Catholic nun
accused of stealing from the Omaha Archdiocese and gambling much of the
money away has pleaded guilty to theft.
An attorney says Sister Barbara Markey pleaded Monday to theft of more
than $1,500. Defense attorney J. William Gallup says she also agreed to
pay $125,000 in restitution.
Tools
Markey faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced in July.
Markey is an internationally known speaker. She was fired in 2006 as
director of the archdiocese’s family life office after an audit found
irregularities.
The audit found that Markey spent $307,545 for her own use or without
documentation. Prosecutors say Markey used the money to cover gambling
forays, gifts and trips.
Proof that it is not a good idea to take Gestas
as a confirmation name.
12 comments
Gonna be tough to blame these on Cardinal Mahony …
Or the Consilium.
not that people won’t ry 🙂
‘try’…sorry..umm that was VII and Mahoney’s fault?
Exactly what strawman is being erected here to be torn down. What in the world do either of these stories have to do with the Cardinal?
Well, my namesake got caught as well.
We like it when religious have habits, but not gambling habits.
Pennsylvania extended gambling licenses in 2007 and will be doing so through 2008. The change in the law that allows this was pitched as a solution to budget problems. We were subjected to a torrent of claims that gambling is an harmless diversion.
If harmless, why then does gambling advertising contain a public-service announcement that anyone with a gambling problem should seek help?
To connect it up to the post, the extreme isolation of our dwindling priesthood and of the orders of sisters is going to lead to more and more addictive behavior because human beings are weak and given to sin.
I had a conversation with a priest last week in which we talked about the benefits of being in an Order rather than being a Diocesan priest. His order has been brought in from Kenya to staff a parish in Pennsylvania. Though not numerous in the States, they are a “community” that is in constant contact: they eat together regularly, travel together when they can, and act as a core group of friends.
Diocesan priests have an awful situation. They are so few and the parishoners are so many that they often have little beyond a surface contact with their parishoners. Unless posted to a large parish, it is likely that they will act alone or with only one other.
Sisters are increasingly in a similar position as they increasingly work in administrative positions in which their co-workers go home to families every night and they get to go home to an apartment like a spinster from the fifties.
I see such stories as these as symptoms of a deeper sickness- the isolation and loss of faith in God’s power that is bolstered by communal living.
I need to pray more fervently for the strength to accept the calls that are assuredly going out to young men and women.
G-Veg, gambling is a regressive tax that is growing because it feeds the single most powerful lobby in most states – the Teachers’ Union. Here in California, the education lobby dwarfs all others and was the driving force behind the Lottery and many other such things.
Not Gestas, but Dismas was my confirmation name. 🙂
Pray for both of them.
Sarcasm on: Although why gamble in Nebraska, everyone knows that if you didn’t want to get caught Mahonyland is the place to be: Sarcasm off.
I knew it. That Las Vegas scene with a nun trying out a slot machine in “Sister Act” got to someone!
Comments are closed.