The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister & The Whistleblower, Part 3
Cleansing the Temple/ Den of Theieves
Caravaggio, Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple
He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:13)
Den of Thieves
As I noted in earlier parts of “The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister & The Whistleblower” I had already had my eyes the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre when I read the March 15th 2021 National Catholic Reporter piece about the “celebrity priest” pastor who pillaged his parish, and the permanent deacon who was laicized for trying to stop him. When it comes to all facets of discipline in a Roman Catholic parish, all roads point back to the ordinary (bishop) in charge of the diocese in question, and it was John O. Barres, the Opus Dei bishop of Rockville Centre, who was, by the way, named in connection with misconduct (He refused to defrock a rapist priest.) in the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on the Catholic Church clergy sex abuse/child rape crisis and cover up, who is in the process of trying to defrock the deacon of his who tried to cleanse St. Joseph’s “temple”.
More background on Barres: He leads a diocese that has already declared bankruptcy as a maneuver for contending with a slew of clergy rape cases headed his way. He has, thus far, refused to make his diocese’s list of credibly accused predators public. He has used parishioners’ resources to mount challenges to strike down the Child Victims Act in court, and and he has authorized gratuitously cruel, re-traumatizing treatment of survivors in court proceedings.
With regard to “celebrity priest” Charles Mangano: Barres allowed this disordered, grifter to pillage a parish, lie to parishioners about the nature of both the pilfering and his dismissal, permitted him disappear on some kind of quasi sabbatical, only to facilitate Mangano’s resurfacing a year or so later, at another parish,. To Barres credit, they demoted Mangano. They made him an “assistant pastor.” This, no doubt, as a way to prevent the sticky-fingered priest from gaining access to his parishioner’s cash. Barres’s generous forgiveness did not, however, extend to the deacon who tried to stop Mangano. No. Mangano got off without making restitution, without admitting culpability, and with his ability to preach and celebrate sacraments intact.
Charles Mangano was appointed in 2016 to serve as pastor of the Parish of St. Joseph by (then) diocese head Bishop William Francis Murphy. Murphy, too, was a reckless spendthrift as well as an alleged enabler in crimes committed by some of the most prolific child rapists in the Archdiocese of Boston. Two years after being installed at the Parish of St. Joseph in Babylon, Mangano posted a note of farewell in the St. Joseph weekly bulletin in which he claimed that he had not been fired.
Not only had Mangano been fired, but also Barres and the Diocese of Rockville Centre had already been straining to rein in Mangano for a while at the time of his dismissal. They had fired and replaced accountants, intervened with Mangano’s effort to use parish funds and property for the running of his Mater Dei Music Ministry. (Later on I’ll discuss Barres’s possible motivations for protecting Mangano, but for now it might suffice to suggest the diocese most likely tolerated his bad behavior which was not limited to stealing, because he brought more money into the church than he pocketed.)
According to one longtime Parish of St. Joseph parishioner, Mangano stuck his former parish, Curé of Ars, in Merrick, Long Island, with a $900,000 deficit before arriving at the Parish of St. Joseph with dollar signs in his eyes. The National Catholic Reporter piece noted that St. Joseph's was “a financially strong parish when Mangano arrived in 2016, thanks to a $1.2 million endowment held in an investment account bestowed by a widow in 2009” and that within the first eight months of his time at St. Joseph’s, Mangano spent $384,000, most of it for non-essential alterations to the rectory and lavish adornments in the church. “Mangano … refurbished a guest apartment in St. Joseph’s rectory, moved the parish’s outreach ministry from the rectory to a decrepit convent on the church’s property that had been deemed unfit for use… and purchased fancy ornamental items such as golden bells for the altar…” (NCR) Mangano also (allegedly) flouted diocesan rules on finances by not informing the parish's finance committee of purchases of over $10,000 not already budgeted, and by failing to obtain (at least three) bids for contracts exceeding $25,000 in the prescribed manner.
It is difficult to prove that a pastor is stealing from his parish, because the costs of upkeep of churches are high and often variable, and because the only person to whom a pastor is accountable is his ordinary (bishop). A bishop who must choose between protecting the people in the pews and the institutional Catholic Church will almost always sacrifice the former to protect the latter. Figuring into this calculus, also, is that parishes don’t really own anything. Dioceses own the property on which their parishes sit, and bishops/dioceses can seize parish accounts at will. The institutional Catholic Church does not exactly advertise this, because doing so would be an expensive admission. Many Catholics who love their parishes despise their bishops. If those folks knew that an unscrupulous bishop, say like John barres, might swoop down and hoover up their donations at any given moment, they might be less eager to tithe.
Lots of Catholics operate under the misapprehension that they can earmark donations for ministries they support. They can’t. Last week my own Opus Dei bishop claimed that no Diocesan Appeal money would be used to pay damage awards to victims/survivors in child rape cases. He was lying. Again, although it is in the bishops’ best financial interest to dissemble about how parish/diocesan money works, they all know — it’s spelled out in the Canon Code — that parish money belongs to their dioceses. Once a pew-sitter tosses that envelope into the basket on Sunday, their bishops do whatever they please with that cash. Catholic diocese money is fungible.
While allowing a dishonest, unbalanced cleric to squander the reserves of a parish supported by faithful hard-working parishioners is obviously a grave transgression, it is possible that John Barres saw that $1.2 million investment as belonging not to St. Joseph’s, but to the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
Just how much money did Charles Mangano take from the parishioners of St. Joseph?
According to their 2017 financial report … the parish's deficit swelled to $576,634 in the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2017, up from $46,482 the previous fiscal year. To make up for the shortfall, the parish used money from its investment account, which had been only lightly tapped into before. According to a source who has seen the account's statements, the account was depleted by up to 75% … (National Catholic Reporter)
According to an undated document (prepared in late 2017 or early 2018, I believe, by parishioners of the Parish of St. Joseph, which bore the title “How did St. Joseph’s Parish Get So Deeply in Debt?”) after just 18 months, Mangano had blown through $700,000 of $1.2 million dollars in the investment account and had caused the deficit to grow by about a half million dollars. Unfortunately Mangano’s bad behavior was not limited to financial misconduct.
Time constraints prohibit me from discussing each of the questions posed in the “How did St. Joseph’s Parish Get So Deeply in Debt?” outline, but the vanity, avarice and impropriety that permeate the litany of misdeeds is stunning. The first two questions posed concern the surreptitious interventions of the diocese designed to curb Mangano’s out-of-control spending. It’s clear from this particular document as well as from a cache of correspondence I am perusing as I write this that the Rockville Centre diocese knew that Mangano was raiding the coffers, dragged their feet in responding to St Joseph parishioners, but may have been trying hard to stop the compulsive spender cleric from squandering the whole $1.2 million.
“How did St. Joseph’s Parish Get So Deeply in Debt?” poses 28 questions. Why were three long-time full-time rectory staff fired when Mangano took over, and why were they not offered “part-time accommodations?” On whose dime were new offices in the rectory created? Was Mangano’s plan to have parish of St. Joseph foot the bill for Mater Dei Music Ministry overhead? For what position was Charles Mangano seeking to hire his sister? Why did the diocese block this hire?
Why did the Parish of St. Joseph get stuck with the cost of building a “guest apartment” on the upper rectory floor for Mangano’s parents? Why was the outreach center moved from the rectory basement? Why were unnecessary alterations to the rectory hallway bathroom made when the existing vanity, toilet and fixtures were in working order?
Why did the parish spend $5,000.00 to move sound system equipment from the south sacristy closet to clear space for the his vestments (alone — not for those of other priests or deacons)? Why didn't Mangano collect competitive bids for the parking lot lighting upgrade in the prescribed manner? Why did Mangano replace fully functioning refrigerators and kitchen appliances in the rectory kitchen?
Why did Mangano replace the existing pastor’s desk with a $4,000 “executive desk”?
How much did the decorative carpets installed in Mangano’s apartment cost? Why did Mangano reduce priests’ stipends and increase their personal insurance costs? Why did Mangano install a special wine refrigerator in the sacristy? Why did Mangano purchase so many gold fixtures for the church? Who paid for the immense Blessed Virgin Mother Statue hidden in the rectory garage?
Why did Mangano hire his friend “Geppi” to work as a maintenance man while he was cutting hours of existing maintenance staff?
Why did Mangano think it acceptable to make a strenuous attempt to solicit a significant donation to his Mater Dei Music Ministry from the Parish of St. Joseph?
Why did the diocese fire Mangano’s newly appointed accountant? Why was no 2016-2017 Parish Annual Report published on the parish website as was generally the custom?
Why in his 2017 letter of apology did Mangano provide no particulars relating to his spending?
Why have ministry leaders been threatened by an alleged private investigator who claims to represent Mangano? What steps has Bishop Barres taken to hold Mangano responsible for these threats?
The Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre knew Charles Mangano had a spending problem. He had accountants fired, and he blocked Mangano’s efforts to operate his not exactly thriving Mater Dei Music Ministry out of the St. Joseph rectory. Barres knew three longtime, full-time housekeeping staff personnel were rendered unemployed as a result of Mangano’s determination to feed at the parish trough while exploiting domestic workers via his “volunteer cleaning ministry.”
Barres knew that parishioners were being threatened by a “private investigator” claiming to have been sent by Mangano. Barres knew parishioners were afraid to be harmed (bodily) as a result of their voicing grievances. Barres knew that Mangano was deriding his own parishioners in public appearances. Still, Barres thought it acceptable to send Mangano back into ministry.
Barres should have removed the deranged Father Mangano from ministry; but instead, decided to attempt to use laicization to punish a devoted deacon for trying to cleanse the temple. Mangano is obviously a troubled man. One ought to pity him.
What’s Barres’ excuse?
MMS
NYC
April 19, 2021
Big shoutout / thanks to Gregg Somerville, thinker, writer and financial whiz extraordinaire for help parsing finance nuances.
Read Part 1, The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister and The Whistleblower
Read Part 2,The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister and The Whistleblower
Read Part 3,The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister and The Whistleblower
Read Part 4,The Bishop, The Thief, His Sister and The Whistleblower
A lot to chew on. My only advice is to have someone else edit before publishing. I found a few mistakes.