The following is a press release from Bishop Robert F. Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa:
Father Oscar Diaz, who served most recently as pastor at Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa was involved in an automobile accident on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. He suffered a fractured hip, underwent surgery and is recovering from this surgery. Thank you for all your prayers for his wellbeing and recovery.
Unfortunately, it is my sad duty to announce that the accident uncovered a prolonged history of theft. At the time of the accident the EMT responders found bags of money in his car. These were the Security Bags used for Parish Collections. The police were alerted on Wednesday evening and they immediately contacted me, the bishop. I asked them to take custody of the cash and to account for it for possible criminal prosecution. Some days later, when the money was turned over to the Diocese, it was counted and found to total $18,305.86. This money was associated with Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa where Father Oscar was pastor. After an initial investigation and several interviews, the police determined that the protocols surrounding collection accounting would make it difficult to arrive at sufficient proof of theft to pursue criminal prosecution.
After the initial discovery of the money in Father Oscar’s car further investigation and search revealed that he had an additional $77,000 in cash which had apparently been stolen from the parishes where he served. There is also evidence that money was stolen in a variety of ways from each of the Parishes where he had served as pastor. I am deeply grieved that this has happened and am deeply saddened that the parishes he was sent to serve have been harmed.
The full extent of the theft is not known and may never be fully known but the Diocese is committed to determining as fully as possible the extent of the theft from each of these parishes. Once such determinations are made it is the goal of the Diocese to make restitution to the parishes.
Father Oscar is presently suspended from priestly ministry. There are no plans at this time for ministry in the Church and his future is uncertain.
From Diocese of Santa Rosa.
Bishop Vasa’s account to priests of the diocese: What does justice look like?
Why, or why, is this any surprise, Catholic People. Many, many priests do not even know their True Faith; those that do often do not care. Thieving will come naturally (as will sexual crimes, too) to priests that lack faith, but have power. There is little respect shown to the parishioners from which thieving priests ply their craft. Just look at Milwaukee Abp. Rembert Weakland who took over $400,000 to pay off his blackmailing, homosexual lover. Time to demand that clergy act like they believe the actual, True Catholic Faith.
We have also reported many times by email and in person to the Santa Rosa Archdiocese Office and San Francisco if outrageous abuses similar to this affecting so many people with no result, but insulting emails with the exception of a very nice sister in the Office of Education. We do not understand why when horrible situations that devastate lives are reported of “Catholics,” there is almost a “normal” reaction to ignore the abuse of not just clergy, but those teaching in Catholic schools and parishoners using parishes as vehicles and Catholic schools for portals for personal gain at the expense of others as a result of unethical conduct. It is surreal.
Excuse me, but you’re wrong. It is not true that “many, many priests do not even know their True Faith.” It is not true that those who do know “do not care.” My priest knows the True Catholic Faith. And MANY priests I have met CARE!
Sorry, “jon” (although the CCD censors will not publish this), many priests do not care. Why? Because they should know by now that many (not all) were malformed as priests and are ignoramuses about the True Catholic Faith. They do not know any Latin, and see no reason to go further back than Vatican II to learn anything about the Faith. Their consistent dissembling about what the Faith requires, say in areas of sexual ethics, Catholic doctrine, and the like, endangers their flocks.
jon– we all know, that lots and lots of priests and bishops today, do NOT know their Catholic Faith! Let’s start with Patrick Zieman (former Bishop of Santa Rosa, convicted of gay sex abuse crimes, and embezzlement!) and Theodore McCarrick! HORRIBLE!! Does Vatican-favored Fr. James Martin, S.J., know his Catholic Faith?? And Fr. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame U.?? The list goes on and on!!
No excuse for any parish to have inadequate accounting protocols. What vices did this priest support by skimming from the collection?
In this day and age of technology, how can this happen? Hopefully the diocese will keep investigating this matter. Is it possible Mr. Diaz has other skeletons in his closet? A family? Had he been blackmailed? Was he preparing to leave e priesthood? A gambling problem? Is there an abusive situation in the mix? Keep digging!
Glaringly missing from the Bishops statement is what he plans to require all parishes to do to minimize the risk of others pulling a similar theft.
A simple system of dual custody until the collection is counted and recorded would make this impossible [absent collusion between the custodians].
That is being dealt with directly to the parishes.
Why must we hear yet another crime story, of a criminal who happens to be a priest? Hard to believe!! Whom can we trust?? Most working people do not work for a trustworthy company, where a serial embezzler has been at the helm, in various locations, for a number of years!! That’s not normal! The priesthood is HOLY!! Why did this happen??
The typical priestly $50,000 annual salary and perks is not enough! His Excellency says the priest will never again service in the diocese (he must be an “import”). IMHO: He should never serve anywhere except time in jail!
The police do not want to go to the expense to conduct audits over 25 yrs and are not interested in moving on this. The diocese can’t afford the 40K plus that it would take to do this either. Better he is no longer able to serve as a priest and is to go back to Mexico. by the way 50K plus a home, medical insurance and often groceries covered brings that wage up to 100K.
In almost all parishes, you see published reports, sometimes weekly, of Sunday collections and expenditures– and where the parish is at, financially. Financial matters are also at times discussed in the pulpit, or at parish meetings. What on Earth went so wrong, in this terrible case?
It takes a car crash to discover missing money?? Several responsible laity counting and money taken directly to the bank, bypassing priests, would help. Also, online giving. I prefer not to give any money to the parish, until the end of the year, where I will write a check designated to go toward the mortgage payment (such designation bypasses any money allocated to the diocese).
The diocese has to hurt financially before any real change occurs. Follow the money…
Maybe it’s time to stop giving cash to churches. Force a paper trail.
Fr. Diaz must have been absent from his seminary class the day the 10 Commandments were taught: Thou shall not steal! Tho shall not lie! This shall not have strange gods before me (mammon $)! Just another scandal in the steadily shrinking Catholic Church. And Bishop Vasa? He is responsible for what happens on his watch! Should he not institute new accounting procedures for the tithes collected at Mass? Just ridiculous! How much longer do we have to endure these scandals?
Double-entry accounting was invented by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar. There’s no excuse for any parish or diocese not to have an adequate assessment of their finances and to spot embezzlement in its earliest stages.
Bishop Vasa’s predecessor, the morally bankrupt Patrick Ziemann, actively recruited and attracted bad priests to his diocese. Therefore, I’m not surprised by this. I am surprised, though, that there didn’t appear to be sufficient accounting controls, especially for this diocese.
In a non-catholic congregation that I am familiar with, the Pastor did not have authority to touch, in any way, the money of the parish. He also was not allowed to know how much any congregant put in the offering. When money had to be spent, the parish secretary or the Pastor would fill out a voucher and submit it to the finance committee with supporting documents. Most were simple expenditures: gas, electric, landscaping, etc.. The treasurer wrote the check and two members of the pastoral council signed it. I believe that process is true for the entire denomination. Most parishes have three people carry the money to the safe rather than two people. Those who count the money can’t be related in any way and can only do it once a month at…
When taking a large amount of money to the bank, never drop it off at a night deposit. Unless all the money is photographed by a deposit machine, those receipts mean nothing as it is your word against theirs as to whether the money was actually deposited. I knew a man who did this, and the money was “lost”. They did seem to find some of quite awhile later.
Always take a large deposit into the bank and get a receipt from an actual person as that cannot be contested. Even though all deposits are counted by two people; it only takes two dishonest people to “lose” it.
Our end of the year statements for tax purposes are never accurate. Now I’m wondering…
Peoples: Lumping all priests and bishops with Zieman, Martin, and McCarrick is not an argument that can hold water. Moreover, just because many priests today are not fluent in Latin, doesn’t mean they don’t care. Folks, these arguments show the dearth in the reasoning of those who would take it upon themselves to judged God’s own anointed.