It appears that the administrator of Holy Trinity Church improperly transferred 20% of the parish’s income, over a six-year period, to pay bills of the parish where he resides. No wonder the Archbishop has been willing to put the planned closure of HTC on hold.
ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON
2121 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE
BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02135-3193
(617) 254-0100 FAX (617) 783-4564
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
December 15, 2005
Ms. Delores Miller
[…]
Dorchester, MA 02125
Dear Ms. Miller:
I thank you for your letter of December 10, 2005 regarding our now-concluding investigation of financial matters of Holy Trinity Church in Boston.
In your letter of December 10, you indicated that you do not wish to come in for a meeting at this time. Rather, you ask to simply have me deliver the results of the investigation. The results of the investigation are that, net of bills paid on behalf of Holy Trinity Parish by St. James Parish, Holy Trinity Parish transferred $176,390 to St. James Parish over the period of the audit.
That amount was borrowed today by St. James Parish and deposited to an existing account belonging to Holy Trinity Parish.
Since you have elected not to come in at the present time, I will be sharing the full results of this audit with the Reconfiguration Oversight Committee this evening. I would have preferred to take the representatives of the Parish through it directly, but I do see the need for. an outside review of our work and will therefore cover this with our committee established by the Archbishop to report on the integrity of our process.
If you find that you or the members of your group want to go through the detail, we would be happy to schedule time to meet with you.
Sincerely,
David W. Smith Chancellor
c: Most Reverend Sean P. O’Malley, OFM Cap.
Hon. Thomas F. Reilly, Attorney General, Comm. of Mass.
Reconfiguration Oversight Committee
That’s a nice catch on the part of the auditor. I think one of the sad goods that will come of the Horror of the last few years is that financial oversight might be more regular.
The credit belongs to the parish financial council, which called for the audit after their own computations showed $175K couldn’t be accounted for. The priest who administers the parish has not allowed the council to function, contrary to canon law.