Following recent high-profile cases of financial mismanagement in parishes, experts said transparency, accountability and greater involvement of financial boards in parish business operations can prevent money being lost – and of pastoral confidence.

On November 18, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced that it had dismissed from his position as pastor Msgr. Jamie Gigantiellowho had, without notification or authorization, transferred nearly $2 million of his parish’s funds to several companies affiliated with a Brooklyn business lawyer.

Four days earlier, former accountant Heather Derrey was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for wire fraud, after embezzling more than $875,000 from her Florida parish — where she had worked for more than 25 years — to use for mortgage repayments, vacations, car and boat loans, clothing and concert tickets.

In July, Kristen Battocletti, an administrative assistant at St. Francis of Assisi University Parish in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from her church to buy digital gift tokens for TikTok content creators .

A few months earlier, the priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Fr. Lawrence Kozak was arrested and charged with theft for spending $40,000 in parish money to play cell phone games such as “Candy Crush” and “Pokemon GO.”

Understanding the risk factors for financial malfeasance, while consistently applying common sense controls and using a range of professional resources, can help parishes avoid such situations, two experts told OSV News.

“Embezzlement and misuse of funds typically occurs when needs and opportunities collide,” explained Matt Manion, professor of practice and faculty director of the Center for Church Management in the School of Business. Villanova University. “An employee or volunteer needs more money, which is often caused by an addiction of some kind — to alcohol, gambling, shopping, drugs, etc. They see their employer, in this case the Church, as a source of money to fill this need. »

In such cases, an employee would “evaluate how easy or difficult it would be to siphon money” and “if the opportunity to steal presents itself, they will often take it,” Manion said.

He emphasized that while “churches cannot necessarily reduce need risk,” they can mitigate opportunity risk through “improved accountability, transparency and financial controls.”

Regina M. Haney, executive director of the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators, or NACPA, agrees, telling OSV News that “lack of oversight” is a major factor in cases of embezzlement and other forms of financial mismanagement.

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, NACPA promotes the integration of Catholic social teaching with best practices in human resources, finance and administration, infusing Gospel values ​​into the workplace. the Church. The organization offers a number of certifications, publications and webinars for church staff.

Haney said isolated staff structures can lead to financial problems and stressed the importance of “having a team that understands the law and understands your finances.”

She also urged parish financial councils – which, along with diocesan financial councils, are required by canon law – to take a more active role in monitoring spending and management.

“When they get reports, they should ask (questions) and study them,” Haney said. “A lot of times people sit on the committee, but they don’t prepare.”

Ideally, those who serve on a finance board “should have a background in finance,” she said – and they should be willing to speak up.

“Some of them think, ‘Well, you know, that’s not respectful,’ or ‘Father knows everything,'” Haney said. “They shouldn’t be afraid to ask a pastor questions.”

“From a transparency standpoint, staff and finance board members should follow the mantra ‘trust but verify,’” Manion said. “They should audit the process of receiving and disbursing funds at least once a year. They should require detailed financial reports every month to ensure nothing extraordinary is happening.”

He listed a number of practical measures that can protect against financial loss, such as having rotating shifts and unrelated people count the collection each week, which would reveal irregularities over time; reduce the number of bank accounts used by a parish; requiring documentation of every transaction, especially as electronic payments predominate; and separate financial tasks.

“The person who makes payments for the parish should not also be the person who reconciles bank statements and prepares reports for the pastor and the finance board,” Manion said.

Performance reviews of parish staff are also essential, said Haney, who recommended “periodic check-ins.”

“Do you know who your employees are and what they do? she asked.

Additionally, audits – required of parishes by dioceses – are crucial, she said.

Manion noted that dioceses can support their parishes in financial management by training parish staff in “best practices in accountability, transparency and financial controls.”

For smaller parishes, which often lack sufficient staff and resources, dioceses can offer “strategies to separate as many tasks as possible with limited staff and volunteers,” he said.

Manion highlighted that “a number of dioceses now use a shared accounting platform that provides real-time data to each parish’s diocesan accounting office.”

Although “this may be seen at the parish level as a sort of ‘big brother’ surveillance,” Manion said he would “encourage parishes to view this more as a resource to protect them and their congregants from possible theft and mismanagement.”

Healing the wounds caused by the parish’s financial mismanagement is “similar to the process of healing from any other crime against trust,” he added.

“Embezzlement by clergy or staff is a crime against the community. In many ways, it is an act of violence against the trust and goodwill of the people,” Manion said. “Parishes need to be open about what happened, acknowledge what went wrong, apologize for the harm it caused and communicate what will be done differently in the future to ensure it does not never happen again.”

The process involves “a visible commitment to greater accountability and transparency,” as well as a spiritual approach, he said.

“I think a time of prayer for healing and forgiveness is also essential,” Manion said. “We are all sinners, and praying for the recovery of the one who stole can also help a Christian move forward.”