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PDF versionPriest sentenced to three years for theft from his Las Vegas parish
by Tom Gallagher on Jan. 17, 2012
A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Friday to three years and one month in federal prison and ordered to repay $650,000 he acknowledged siphoning from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his gambling habit.
According to the Associated Press:
Muffled sobs erupted from a courtroom packed with supporters, but Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, stood straight and made no reaction as U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan faulted him for accepting responsibility but "hedging his bet" by blaming the theft on a gambling addiction.
"You abused a position of trust, Mr. McAuliffe, the judge said, dispensing with any church title for the priest who many in the parish referred to as Father Kevin while he hid a weakness for casinos and video poker. "You betrayed people who depended on you."
The prison sentence is geat
The prison sentence is geat news.
But... how in the heck were the internal controls so loose that he managed to embezzle not 6,500, not 65,000 but 650,000?
I'd bet that simple accounting software with checks, balances and alerts to third parties of unusual activity could have ended his gambling with embezzled cash.
Perhaps this is progress in
Perhaps this is progress in our civil court system that we are not fearful of sending Catholic Priests to jail. However stealing of money does not seem at all as serious as the soul rape of men that would rape children or of the Bishops that would enable such actions. These actions were enabled by not only the passing offending priests from place to place but they were enabled when the Bishops did not listen to their own priest and theologians that asked them to rectify their own sexual wounds caused by an illusory "enforce celibacy." We as a church have a lot to learn and we are told not even to discuss the problems that a sexually wounded clergy must face. Let's discuss a married priesthood. Let's discuss a female priesthood. Ideas that see the light of day are not what is rotting our church and causing it to implode from within its very leadership. At least we are now not afraid to put thieves in jail even if they are priests.
Dennis Porch, MD
Honestly, I believe NCR could
Honestly, I believe NCR could post an item about a priest who cheated at golf, and people here would blame celibacy, an all-male clergy and the child sex abuse scandal.
What are the odds that the
What are the odds that the police would have been involved if Monsignor McAuliffe had put his hands on the parish's children instead of the parish's money?
wait until they see Mike
wait until they see Mike Rodriguez in El PAso . . .
His excuse, blaming the theft
His excuse, blaming the theft on a gambling addiction, would be more believable if he had first gambled away all his personal savings. Leaving his personal savings intact while gambling with stolen church money cannot believably be blamed on an addiction...
Father is always right and we
Father is always right and we should never question him, he is a Holy Person sworn to serve the People of God, unless they are a Gay Couple, or a Gay couple who wants their child to attend a Catholic School for a good education and to learn about the Love of Jesus.
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