Although a criminal investigation is ongoing, an outside audit found a correlation between the missing money and the tenure of its now-former pastor, Father Leonard Van Vlaenderen, who was arrested in December 2007 on a misdemeanor charge of possessing cocaine.
This was disclosed to parishioners in a letter from the current pastor, Father Kenneth P. Knippel. He was asked for comment.
Despite the audit findings, he said Thursday he was reluctant to pass judgment on Van Vlaenderen, who pleaded guilty to the drug charge in May and is serving one year of probation.
"Some of the people here love him dearly," he said.
That's a little different tone than what you find at EthicsPoint, where Archbishop Dolan says
This system will provide employees, volunteers, parishioners, vendors and other interested individuals the opportunity to share concerns, anonymously if they wish, about financial practices and policies within the archdiocese and parish communities.
I haven't gotten the impression over the years that suspicions of embezzlement by lay staff are handled quite so gingerly as are those about Father Van Vlaenderen.
See Local cases behind decision to audit parishes; and Church embezzlement is theft, but also betrayal of trust (Thursday, January 15, 2004)
See also Folks, it's time to move on (Thursday, March 18, 2004)
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