I know her husband tangentially. He is a firefighter. They sold their house in October for 2.5MM so she should be able to pay it back. I feel bad for her husband and kids.
In a case this strange and sudden, with such audacious spending, I wonder if there's some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder that suddenly took a turn for the worse. But I suppose it's also possible that the construction project provided an opportunity and she just took it. Weird case. You're right, her poor family must be suffering such shame and confusion.
20th century enterprise software configured to enforce segregation of duties will heal these undiagnosed mental disorders quickly. Are parish financial directors really that much in the dark?
How’d that nice flat organization work out for the priest? And was she more of an “office manager” than a finance manager? A nice simple org chart never guarantees that proper financial controls (not just administrative checks and balances) are in place.
As mentioned in the article, there are some controls/oversight that could be provided by volunteers beyond the priest and paid parish staff. After all, parishes are supposed to have finance councils.
There will still be priests and parish staff who will attempt to embezzle from parishes even with best practices, but let’s not provide the temptation, eh?
Another illuminative story about an issue that we really do not want to see again. But PLEASE continue to publish these stories. We should pray for this parish, and all other parishes who have been hit with financial scandals. We ALL need to be aware of these scandals, so we can help our own parishes do better with the treasure that has been entrusted to them.
20th century financial software and segregation of duties that the business world has been using since Pope Paul VI’s papacy would be more effective than prayer.
Heather Darrey got caught very quickly because she was galactically stupid. The sheer size of the sums embezzled in less than six months made her detection almost inevitable.
The successful fraudsters can get away with subtle skimming theft almost indefinitely. Back in 1998-2000, my parish in Michigan had a typical weekly collection of around 16,000 dollars. From a British parish perspective, this was riches beyond the dreams of avarice, but it was not unusual in the USA.
Who could tell if the true collection was really 17,000 or 18,000 bucks? All the bills and salaries were paid, the diocese got their slice, the parish buildings were in good repair. In fact we steadily accumulated a surplus to pay for big one off costs like a new roof or a car park extension. The parish priest seemed to have a lifestyle in accordance with his income, so I guess that nothing nefarious was going on.
Fr Walter Benz in Pennsylvania escaped earthly justice after embezzling 1.3 million between 1972 and 1998. That was real money back then.
Much more recently, Fr Jon Wehle in Lansing, Michigan got perhaps 5 million out of his parish over 19 years to build an eight bedroom mansion.
Michael Ryan described the abysmal state of Church financial security back in 2005. He includes Fr Benz among the many depressing examples. How much has improved since then? Ryan correctly points out that embezzled funds can pay for mistresses, boy friends, etc.
I know her husband tangentially. He is a firefighter. They sold their house in October for 2.5MM so she should be able to pay it back. I feel bad for her husband and kids.
In a case this strange and sudden, with such audacious spending, I wonder if there's some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder that suddenly took a turn for the worse. But I suppose it's also possible that the construction project provided an opportunity and she just took it. Weird case. You're right, her poor family must be suffering such shame and confusion.
20th century enterprise software configured to enforce segregation of duties will heal these undiagnosed mental disorders quickly. Are parish financial directors really that much in the dark?
What finance director? This woman was it. Above her is likely only the priest
How’d that nice flat organization work out for the priest? And was she more of an “office manager” than a finance manager? A nice simple org chart never guarantees that proper financial controls (not just administrative checks and balances) are in place.
As mentioned in the article, there are some controls/oversight that could be provided by volunteers beyond the priest and paid parish staff. After all, parishes are supposed to have finance councils.
There will still be priests and parish staff who will attempt to embezzle from parishes even with best practices, but let’s not provide the temptation, eh?
Another illuminative story about an issue that we really do not want to see again. But PLEASE continue to publish these stories. We should pray for this parish, and all other parishes who have been hit with financial scandals. We ALL need to be aware of these scandals, so we can help our own parishes do better with the treasure that has been entrusted to them.
20th century financial software and segregation of duties that the business world has been using since Pope Paul VI’s papacy would be more effective than prayer.
Heather Darrey got caught very quickly because she was galactically stupid. The sheer size of the sums embezzled in less than six months made her detection almost inevitable.
The successful fraudsters can get away with subtle skimming theft almost indefinitely. Back in 1998-2000, my parish in Michigan had a typical weekly collection of around 16,000 dollars. From a British parish perspective, this was riches beyond the dreams of avarice, but it was not unusual in the USA.
Who could tell if the true collection was really 17,000 or 18,000 bucks? All the bills and salaries were paid, the diocese got their slice, the parish buildings were in good repair. In fact we steadily accumulated a surplus to pay for big one off costs like a new roof or a car park extension. The parish priest seemed to have a lifestyle in accordance with his income, so I guess that nothing nefarious was going on.
Fr Walter Benz in Pennsylvania escaped earthly justice after embezzling 1.3 million between 1972 and 1998. That was real money back then.
Much more recently, Fr Jon Wehle in Lansing, Michigan got perhaps 5 million out of his parish over 19 years to build an eight bedroom mansion.
https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/03/14/okemos-priest-mansion-embezzlement/32948537/
Michael Ryan described the abysmal state of Church financial security back in 2005. He includes Fr Benz among the many depressing examples. How much has improved since then? Ryan correctly points out that embezzled funds can pay for mistresses, boy friends, etc.
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_01_06/2005_06_17_Ryan_TheSecond.htm
Thanks for this article. A a priest, I can always use a good reminder to keep up best practices in the parish around finances
Thank you for this reporting. So sad for everyone involved. And this woman must be held fully accountable.