Connecticut Catholics protest priestly theft examinations

The Catholics of Connecticut protest against an investigation by the archdiocese against a pastor who is accused of stealing money from his community Hartford.

A lot of several dozen community members gathered on Saturday outside of Holy Trinity Church and asked Father Dr. Charles Jacobs is put back to the church after being brought into administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Hartford in the middle of an investigation of theft.

But while the priest claims that he was innocent – and supporters in the community were pronounced for his defense – an expert for community disorders warns that the community members, although they naturally agree with their priests, should expose the judgment until the investigation is concluded.

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Ms. Charles Jacobs, 73, has been assigned as administrator in the Inner City Holy Trinity Church in Hartford for more than two decades. The Holy Trinity is a mission of the nearby Archdiocesan Cathedral.

But in a trade fair on January 26th in the church, the conglomerate of the Archdiocese for clergyman announced that Jakobs had been accused of “possible financial uninviation” and that Jacobs had admitted to “an unauthorized amount of money from the community for his unexpected and personal use.

“As a result, Fr. Jacobs was put on the administrative leave, while the archdiocese carried out an investigation of its finances”, Dr. John Melnick told the parishioners.

Melnick called the situation “shocking and disappointing” and said that he wanted to emphasize the “seriousness of the allegations”, and demanded that the Catholics “allow the investigation to take its course”.

Melnick said that he could not state any details because the examination was in the “early stages”, however, said that the results of the community were ultimately shared.

As soon as Melnick announced the situation, a member of the parishion called out of a PEW that the allegations were “not” – and the community reacted with applause.

When the priest stood in the altar, a young member of the parish went to the Ambo of the Church immediately after the announcement.

“We know [Jacobs]. We know him as a person. Would father Jacobs ever do that? No, he wouldn't do that, ”said the young man.

The community continued to welcomed when the member of the parishion defended his priest.

“Look at the car [Jacobs] Has, ”said the young man. “Look at everything he has. He does not spend this money on himself. He does not spend this money on himself. And if he had to do, it would be the poor. “

He spoke to Melnick about more applause: “We should do that. We should donate the poor. We should do that and you know that. “

Community members applauded, and when Melnick wanted to complete the fair, the young man continued to speak.

“This is unfair. It's unfair. This type … took away [Jacobs’] Pension, ”said the young man. “Do you know what these people are? You are bullying. … and soon you will close this church, and you will not say that because you don't want us to know. “

When he continued, the parishioners applauded.

“Father Jacobs is the reason why half of us are even here. He is the reason why I go to church at all. He is the reason why I love Church, ”said the young man from the Ambo, just before the live stream video ended.

The mass closed without further incident, but the situation has remained controversial.

While the priest has supposedly admitted to take money out of the community, he contradicts the diocesan assistants about how much and for what purposes.

According to Stamford's lawyer, Jacobs explained that he took small amounts of parish collections to help people in need, and that “he never took church money for my personal use. I existed people who came to the door before or after the fair. “

The archdioces spokesman David Elliot, however, described this claim as “obviously absurd” and informed the lawyer of Stamford that Jacobs made himself as a “modern Robin Hood”.

Elliot said that if Jacobs wanted to give the poor community money, he could have done so – but instead the priest Parish took cash “for years” and deposited it in his own bank account.

“It wasn't necessary [Jacobs] To steal the community from the community, take cash from the offered or put the money on his personal bank account and then put it on your arms, ”said Elliot. “He could simply have given the money from the community to his arms.”

It is not clear what exactly the priest is being accused of doing a community fund, which he reported on in his bank account.

However, his lawyer stated that the suspicion of gambling this month could be gambling that the Archdiocesan officials with the Stamford lawyer with the Hartford police and the Mohegan Sun Tribeal Police, who supervised the Connecticut reserve, supervised a large casino.

While Jacobs' lawyer argues that the archdiocese had not submitted any police reports, The column Was not yet able to check whether the police in Connecticut checked the matter.

The priest told reporters in Connecticut in his part that, although he regularly visits casinos, he does not play with church money.

And although he will probably be exposed to a canonical criminal proceedings and the prospect of a criminal investigation, the parishioners continue to gather for him.

The priest became in the community, both for his service in the homeless population of the region and for its encouragement that the parishioners regularly bring their pets to the fair.

During the rally “Stand with With Father Jacobs” on Saturday, a member of the parishion told the participants that “the poor, mentally ill, older people, [Jacobs] is the pastor for everyone who lives in this part of Hartford. “

“The church better remembers that this man does the work of the Lord for all people here and that they punish him to be a sin himself.”

Robert Warren, a retired IRS investigator and professor of accounting at Radford University, carried out extensive research on priests who steal.

The research of Warren shows that the percentage of stealing priests is relatively low, the culture of trust in a church can lead to abundant possibilities and few consequences for clerics who are caught.

The researcher told The column The fact that his research showed that “Connecticut has a disproportionate proportion of cases of priestly fraud”, with six of the 120 cases he examined – 5% of the total – in the nutmeg state.

While the Holy Trinity is in a weak part of Hartford, Warren noticed other embezzlement and fraud cases in the state in which priests stole significant amounts of money from wealthy communities.

“This is probably the result of several factors, but a main reason can be the disproportionate amount of prosperity in Connecticut. Priests in wealthy areas are just as likely as anyone who wants to keep a step with the Joneses, said Warren.

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In the case of Jacobs, said Warren, Warren said The column The fact that he was not surprised that parishioners pushed back against the allegations of theft.

“Community members who gather behind a priest who was removed due to alleged financial misconduct is not uncommon,” he said.

“First, the pastor is personally known to the parishioners. He is the one who baptizes her children, testifies to their marriages, awards their sins and gives the sick call of the middle of the night to manage the last rites of older relatives, ”emphasized Warren.

“Secondly, the community priest is the father of the community, and nobody wants to believe that their father is a thief or, even worse that their father would steal them.”

“Thirdly, the bishop is far away and can be seen as a” church bureaucrat “, who is distributing a money complaint every year, but does not take care of the community,” said Warren.

But Warren warned both parishioners and archdioces assistants to be careful.

If it is not already: “The Archdiocese should create a police report and let law enforcement deal with the matter,” he said.

“And the bishop should explain that he is obliged to ensure that church funds are used for the right purpose. The bishop must emphasize that it is never appropriate for a priest to take communities and to put it on a non-parish bank account, ”said Warren.

“The parishioners should understand that Father Jacobs was not thrown on his ear. The archdiocese is obliged to continue to offer him a salary and adequate living and medical care. “

“Because of the news reports and age of father Jacobs, I will suspect that he will withdraw from the active ministry and start gathering his pension, space and board of directors … While the law enforcement, the Bishop, the lawyer of Father Jacobs and the Diocesan Insurance Fears work out a plea agreement and are acceptable for everyone involved,” added Harren.

Nevertheless, Warren also asked the parishioners to suspend the judgment until canonical and criminal investigations have been completed.

“However, the parishioners should understand that the bishop cannot return a priest to financial responsibility if he does not know whether he will repeat his supposedly convicted behavior,” emphasized Warren.

“Just because our Mr. Judas let the wallet be handled – although our gentleman knew that Judas stole the donations – the bishop doesn't have to do the same with pastor,” he emphasized.

“This is not a question of forgiveness,” he said. “Instead, it is a question of financial prudence.”

Neither Jacobs' lawyer nor the archdiocese in Hartford have reacted so far The columnInquiries for comments.

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