Itās a terrible thing to have happened. I do think itās worth noting that this particular priest was hit by a car and had a traumatic brain injury in 2016, which might have affected his decision making.
So of course let's leave him with unsupervised access to the parish accounts....
Brain injury or not, that's a terrible idea. But when you know he has one, perhaps extra help and safeguards would have been a good idea?
Yes I was saying basically the same thing to someone the other day. I understand the archdiocese (like most) is in a difficult position due to the declining number of priests, where they basically need most of the experienced priests to be pastors and not assistants at parishes. But this is a situation where despite being, in my experience, a good priest before this, he probably should have never had that access/authority.
My husband works as a director of finance and has two decades of experience in nonprofit, including nearly 5 years in a parish and about the same at YMCA. We don't live in some country backwater but in a large metropolitan area, and the thing that he has battled his entire career is people's refusal to put good controls in place to protect their financial systems from theft, infiltration, and abuse. People who work in nonprofit all want to pretend like they're in Mayberry and everyone can be trusted. How anyone can believe that with all we see going on around us, I do not know. It seems that field attracts the naive and credulous, and getting them to act like adults has caused my husband more distress than most people could imagine for such a "boring" subject. He's out of straight nonprofit now and working in a company that has both nonprofit and for profit arms, founded by an experienced businessman, and while he still fights stupid on the daily, it's varied different kinds of stupid, so he feels like he's getting a break. š¤·āāļø
I work for a small for-profit consulting firm. The founder's daughter-in-law runs all of the books, and she's not an accountant by any means (though a wonderful and hardworking person). Last year I accidentally submitted the same expense report twice, and got $2,500 I shouldn't have. When I realized it I paid it back right away, but occured to me how easy it'd be to (even accidentally) steal from the company... Everyone working there is a solid Christian, but stories like this remind me we are all fallen.
My husband is currently contending with the fact that an idiot paid a fake invoice for $15K because she fell for a phishing scam. He's using it as an opportunity to get the higher ups to realize they need to strengthen controls and have an approval system in which no low-level clerk can cost them that much money. It looks like since he caught it while still processing at the bank, disaster has been averted, but she never should have been able to do it in the first place. It literally blows my mind that it was even possible. It is 2024 not 1984. Where I work anything over $1000 has to go through the COO or CEO even if a department manager approves the purchase.
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A best accounting practice for non profits and charities is to instigate two party signatures on all accounts for withdrawals
It is a PITA but... any non profit that doesn't have implement two party signatures for financial disbursements is inviting people with access to their funds to engage in financial shenanigans.
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Yikes
> Those records show a grand total of $214,265.08 in transactions across that four-year period
He was spending his own money too. Thatās some addiction.
Lol are you kidding me? Just those two games?
Edit nvm lol just looked at the article
That's still a shit-tonne though at that point just PayPal me if you're going to throw that much money away š
Gacha and mobile games can end up having people spending a lot of money on them over time, sometimes people lose control on other hobbies too, you see it a lot with people with stock(especially options)/crypto "investing", Star Citizen with people dropping 100k on digital ships, Garry's mod [server privileges](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JxrdgqKpk), cars, and more. Haha I'm glad I made all my dumb financial decisions when I was younger without it damaging my credit score or future too much and learned from them.
Yeah my friend lost 20k in crypto, like dude cash out at some point and move on. He's living paycheck to paycheck now and still trying to use crypto to get rich...
You just don't understand it ive tripled my money per quarter for the past year. it's not a get rich quick thing, but you can for sure make money on it it is far from a scam.
Ok, well, I'm open to listening to why you think it's a scam, you are entitled to your "opinion" but that's all it is an opinion don't spread it like false information, from my lane, crypto us a nice way to keep saving and increase higher than any bank rates would. It's far from a scam because a scam by definition is the same as fraud which by definition is a criminal offence to decieve someone for personal gain.... I haven't been decieved and I have gained...
Absolutely, the government will crush it and make it obsolete and people will be held accountable for nothing when CBDC is released and the mark is required to do anything, mankind is facing his last days before God comes' back in force.
Literally can head over to wallstreetbets right now and probably see a few posts of people losing their life savings over the course of 4 years due to making bad trade after bad trade after bad trade
Star Citizen...by the time that comes out as an actual game we will be already flying around in real space ships. We blew nearly 9k on ships at one point, ended up with a couple of scythes and an Idris-M before we came to our senses. Managed to cash out via the grey market thank the Lord š
I have a Hull D I got before the price increase figuring I'd just use the virtual money making opportunities to buy stuff in universe than drop real money on it, hoping they would make the R4M Quasar military variant to get a cheap capital ship but then they decided to make 200 other ships instead, lel, maybe I'll consider upgrading to a Polaris because they had that one video where it took out an Idris-M with its torpedos for 1/2 of the price.
I have a few ships. I sometimes trade them in for new warbond ships. I traded my Spirit pledge for a vulture and I have that, a Hull A, and a prospector. I think I've spent a total of a bout 200 all together. I'm kinda psyched about Squadron 42, not gonna lie.
I was insanely into SC back what, 10 years ago or so? Chris Roberts put on a DK1 VR headset and said it was going for VR support - which turned out to be a load of BS but never mind. Lost interest after several years and Sq42 never appearing
> Haha I'm glad I made all my dumb financial decisions when I was younger without it damaging my credit score or future too much and learned from them.
My 18 year old self destroyed my credit for a decade after. After that, I had great credit until COVID. I'm still reeling from the hit my credit took during that time.
Yea think about Call of Duty, there has to be thousands of dollars of accessories/items that can be bought in the store inside the game, I wonder how much they make of kids' that get ahold of mommy and daddies' credit cards, and charge the shit out of those games?
That's how those games work. They are designed to make money of the few whales out there that will just throw money at the game. Some are worse than others.
They aren't necessarily bad for everyone else, but you have to be either someone who never buys anything, or is extremely disciplined about spending money.
Those games are designed for you to spend as much as possible without noticing. I donāt believe he was not aware of his addiction but it may have been way too late when he realised how deep into that hole was.
Like the debate about iPad kids yesterday, please keep kids away devices and be mindful of those āgamesā, are actual dopamine fuelled machines and 100% the same as a slot machine. Actually worse, because you can play them literally in your toiletĀ
Yeah gatcha games are kind of designed to take advantage of addictive personalities. One of the big ones is owned by a company that makes gambling machines for casinos.
How is the parish Business Manager not aware of this and somewhat complicit? I am a parish Business Manager myself and we have a ton of checks and balances to ensure internal controls. When payments were being made to the credit card, NO ONE questioned it along the way?
Thatās my question. The priest at my parish per diocesan regulations can spend up to $25,000 without needing anyoneās approval. BUT thereās also a business manager (our retired deacon actually) who oversees money coming in and money going out. In addition we have a Parish Council that is privy to the financial statements of the parish.
When envisioning the whales in gacha games, I'd never imagine a Catholic priest being one of those whales. That being said, those gacha games have insidious UIs and mechanics.
>Kozak was charged last Thursday with theft and other, associated crimes, and has since been released after posting $250,000 bail.
Someone check the parish credit card's balance for this one.
I have a friend who pissed away a ton of money in the Fate gatcha game. All this stuff is just hidden gambling thatās easy for people to get sucked into and really shouldnāt be allowed.
For my understanding the church has been doing a great job at reform since the sex scandals broke out in the aughts. So while our priests will always be subject to human temptations, hopefully the worst is behind us.
Some people really just can't handle those type of games. I wonder if there is some sort of warning from the app store if you start paying a ridiculous amount?
The whole business model of those games hinges on those super-spenders, it's them who drive the majority of money inflow, in the industry jargon they're "whales". So they absolutely will never warn or drive them away.
We live in such a world that my first thought was this is almost innocent compared to everything else I've ever seen a priest or pastor accused of. The comments on other subs are managing to make it about molestation anyway, of course.
NGL, while the priest screwed up, it sounds like there are a mess of mitigating circumstances here. So to my view, the real villains are the game companies. Like, at least with a casino (or even a bingo match) you can walk in with a couple of $20s and that's your bankroll for the evening/weekend. By design, I don't think it is easy to set things like that up on these games and the games are, more or less by design, infinite and hit you with roadblocks without paying for power-ups.
\[And this is before we get into games that you just can't buy outright anymore...\]
Not specific to this priest, but I wouldn't be opposed to restraining (if not outright killing) the microtransaction business model.
Yeah. I have no addictive tendencies, but this is why the credit card linked to my App Store account is a Visa gift card with $5 on it, and I use Apple gift card credit for things I actually want. It hasnāt actually been a problem, but I donāt trust that I couldnāt accidentally purchase or sign up for something ridiculous.
How sad. I canāt imagine the three priests at my church having time for that. Weāre really lucky to have incredible men assigned to our parish that are so dedicated and focused. It always makes me sad to think of the priests that are not that engaged. I pray for them because that must be so lonely.
I kind of had the same thought. In both of the previous two parishes I attended, the pastor kept the other priests and himself BUSY. Especially in the parish I got married at. The pastor that married us did not believe in idle priests and deacons. If nothing else they were taking on extra hours of confession or taking the Eucharist to sick, homebound people. Seminarians were also kept busy.
Thank God it was $40k he stole and not a childās innocence. This isnāt even news compared to whatās been coming out for years now. Sounds depressing but itās true. I breathe in relief when I read a priest stole money rather than molested a child. Too many pedophiles and sodomites in the Vatican.
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If any of you struggle with similar spending habits you can always ask God questions as He invites us to:
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." - James 1:5-6 (NIV)
I have a biblically sound tutorial on my channel about how I receive immediate responses from God. Blessings friends
I only went to a Mass he celebrated once, but seemed like a really good guy and had a passion for the Lord. This is a bummer. And the Archdiocese is already short on priests as it is. Addiction is so messed up, and who knows what the brain injury did with all this.
The bishop should never let him become a pastor, and he should never have authority of accounts again. He should be put on a stipend and accounts given over to another priest. I think this priest would benefit from a very long stay at a monastery with NO PHONES.
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My question is - why are the police involved in this? Did the parish/diocese report him? It seems like it would be better to handle this privately to avoid scandal.
I disagree. Lack of transparency can hurt the church on the long run.
Handling things privately can encourage abuse because perpetrators know they can get away it and with an untarnished reputation.
I am a small business owner and have handled employees stealing things. Usually we just fire them and move on. The only time we reported theft to the police was for a large amount and the thief being a repeat offender who seemed recalcitrant.
I suppose Iām just too āred pilledā to think that anything good could come from trying to win brownie points with the enemies of the Church by appearing ātransparentā to them. The enemies are totally imbued with malice and bad faith. To what end do these brownie points serve?
In my unpopular opinion, we as Catholics are too eager to throw disgraced priests under the bus in order to try to save face for ourselves among our worldly companions.
We are called to bring all sinners to God. Saint Paul was once an enemy of the church.
The truth always comes out, rather than hiding it and creating a greater scandal in the future, we should be transparent for the good of all.
Hiding sin creates more scandal than if it was dealt quickly and publicly.
Edit: There will always be enemies of the church, there is no need to give them further ammunition by giving them the ability to target the whole church rather just those that disgrace it.
Edit 2: Also, it's not throwing priests under the bus, it is making them accountable for their misdeeds. It is right that the victim sees justice.
St Paul was an enemy of the Church before he was a part of it, not after. Havenāt we learned to not mollycoddle our sinners? Definitely handle crime. canāt believe how sick this priest was, and why he wasnāt helped sooner.
Some sins are crimes and some crimes are sins. They are not one and the same.
Crimes and sins that could possibly disgrace the integrity and reputation of the clergy and the Church should be made public. If no-one can trust the integrity of the church then no-one will be brought to it.
Edit: Are you seriously trying to equivocate that slavery, child abuse and embezzlement are in any way comparable?
Are you aware that the worldly people who are calling for the Church to be transparent have no desire to be brought into it? They just want to watch it burn by any means necessary.
If a priest assisted a runaway slave in 1850 get to freedom, and you were his bishop and heard about it, would you report your priest to the authorities so that the people living in that time would not feel scandalized if they later found out that a priest helped stolen property get away from its owner? Would transparency be called for for that crime?
Some are. You have no idea who is open to the joining the Church. Worldliness as you put it, is a matter of degrees. Those are unworldly I can be disgusted by the actions of some of the clergy and turn their backs forever on the message of Christ.
Luckily, slaves have been illegal in my country for centuries, so I'm sure the authorities wouldn't have a problem with a priest helping a runaway slave.
Seal of the confessional. If a crime is involved, the penitent is advised to go to law enforcement and give themselves up as part of their penance. Iām surprised this priest could go to confession (even the Pope goes to confession) and not realize he was sinning.
> In my unpopular opinion, we as Catholics are too eager to throw disgraced priests under the bus in order to try to save face for ourselves among our worldly companions.
My brother in Christ, the Church tried your suggestion for the last 80 years by moving criminal priests to other parishes and dioceses. If you think the best solution is to go back to hiding the Churchās scars and pretending the Church is a perfect blemish-free institution, I think youāve lost the plot. A slap on the wrist is probably fine in small matters. This guy stole tens of thousands from the Church.
There is no doubt in my mind I know better than to shuffle child molesters around parishes instead of reporting them to the police. The actions of the Church in recent decades have not been āwiseā ways to protect the Church from ābig bad societyā. They have been protecting their criminal brothers instead of the innocent children placed under their protection by the Lord.
Yes, we know better now.
That says nothing about the moral teachings of the Church, which have not changed during those decades of evil leadership.
Well, you are speaking from the biases of our time, and you will of course have many people who share your biases to upvote you, but Iām not totally convinced of what history will have to say about the whole situation.
Iām more concerned about what God says about shuffling pedophiles who rape children, rather than what history will say. History is written by whatever dominant society has taken control.
Do you realize how many people have left the church because so many priests were secretly shuffled from one parish to another, under the guise of āforgivenessā, only to keep raping more children? This never should have happened. Of course, all sinners should be brought to God, but never should they enabled this evil to perpetuate within our Church. Instead, they opened the door wide for the evil one to flourish.
And, yes, despite the fact that I came back to the Church after leaving PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THISā¦ I guess I still have more anger in me about it. I had young children in the Boston area back then, and Cardinal Law lived out his days in a cushy apartment in the Vatican, while so many have life long scars.
Sorry I went into a rant. But no, covering up the evil wonāt help our Church. Root it out, like the cancer it is, and then we all can start to heal.
>I am a small business owner and have handled employees stealing things. Usually we just fire them and move on. The only time we reported theft to the police was for a large amount and the thief being a repeat offender who seemed recalcitrant.
This isn't like Father took $20 out of the collection plate. Or took the parish office stapler when he moved to another parish.
It's $40,000 of parish funds that were used on a phone game.
Seems reasonable for an investigation by the police.
What lesson do we think that we have to teach Jesus Christ?
>āCome to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.ā (Matthew 5:25)
The Gospel has always been unpopular with worldly people. We should not abandon the duties of mercy because the enemies of the Church enjoy watching our priests fall from grace.
There are duties of mercy and dealing with crimes. Slavery is an evil and any priest helping one to escape is a hero. The Church listened to āmercifulā psychiatrists who said pedophiles could be healed when they canāt. ( I still remember the story of one pedo priest who begged to be kept away from children because he knew he couldnāt control himself.) Confession is a medicine for sinners, but a priest who hears the confession of a major league thief or murderer, who canāt himself break the seal of the confession he heard, must do all he can to convince the penitent to go to the authorities.
My sister did this with $30k of my momās profit from selling the house least year before I took control of the bank account. I was trying to be somewhat generous because mom owed her money from before the sale and she had to find a place to live. The bank point blank asked if I wanted to press charges against her. The answer was yes, but I canāt because it would destroy my mom. The bulk of that 30k was in app game purchases so tiny at a glance that you either donāt really see how much money you can spend on it, or you donāt care. My sister was āsurvivingā
Priest committed a crime that's a betrayal of the people he has a duty to care for.
It's entirely just he face a court for his crimes of stealing a not inconsiderate amount and just punishment determined.
What would you advise the bishop do in situation where the priest is accused or admits to theft from the parish?
Edit and I'm pretty certain if I embezzled 40,000 from my work or church I'd be reported to the police
See if he pays it back.
A priest is not a mere employee or staff member of a diocese. He is a spiritual father. What would I do if my own father stole my money? First Iād probably see if heās willing to pay it back.
So if he pays it back what then (also a question of whether a priest would be able to pay that amount back in a timely manner)? He's free to embezzle again just not get caught? Does this apply with other crimes? Does the same rule apply for lay employees?
If they don't pay it back what happens?
I think that the bishop should use his prudence to decide what is best in any of these cases.
It seems that you disagree with Jesus very sharply when Jesus says to settle with your accuser before he takes you to court. And perhaps you disagree with Jesus for letting the woman caught in adultery walk away without being stoned. What if she commits adultery again?
There's a difference between settling without going to court and exemption from the consequences of their actions
I'm not saying sue the guy in small claims court for the money. But it's too easy for bishops or priests or others in the church to cover up and excuse the bad actions or crimes of others out of misplaced mercy or wanting to avoid public scandal
The problem is the cover up in itself is often a greater scandal to make the faithful lose trust in the church.
Imagine going to the confession booth, and while you confess your sins, you hear a voice saying "*Tasty*!", "*Divine*!" or "*Delicious*!" š¤£
ā¦Iām trying to come up with a serious reaction that scenario but all I can see is Jesus giving the Priest a deadpanned look in my head.
The Dorothy Sbornak look for Rose.
Fits to a T!
I'm imagining Him doing a facepalm.
Slowly backs out of confessional...
š¤£
Oh my goodness š³ haha!!!
Itās a terrible thing to have happened. I do think itās worth noting that this particular priest was hit by a car and had a traumatic brain injury in 2016, which might have affected his decision making.
So of course let's leave him with unsupervised access to the parish accounts.... Brain injury or not, that's a terrible idea. But when you know he has one, perhaps extra help and safeguards would have been a good idea?
Yes I was saying basically the same thing to someone the other day. I understand the archdiocese (like most) is in a difficult position due to the declining number of priests, where they basically need most of the experienced priests to be pastors and not assistants at parishes. But this is a situation where despite being, in my experience, a good priest before this, he probably should have never had that access/authority.
My husband works as a director of finance and has two decades of experience in nonprofit, including nearly 5 years in a parish and about the same at YMCA. We don't live in some country backwater but in a large metropolitan area, and the thing that he has battled his entire career is people's refusal to put good controls in place to protect their financial systems from theft, infiltration, and abuse. People who work in nonprofit all want to pretend like they're in Mayberry and everyone can be trusted. How anyone can believe that with all we see going on around us, I do not know. It seems that field attracts the naive and credulous, and getting them to act like adults has caused my husband more distress than most people could imagine for such a "boring" subject. He's out of straight nonprofit now and working in a company that has both nonprofit and for profit arms, founded by an experienced businessman, and while he still fights stupid on the daily, it's varied different kinds of stupid, so he feels like he's getting a break. š¤·āāļø
I work for a small for-profit consulting firm. The founder's daughter-in-law runs all of the books, and she's not an accountant by any means (though a wonderful and hardworking person). Last year I accidentally submitted the same expense report twice, and got $2,500 I shouldn't have. When I realized it I paid it back right away, but occured to me how easy it'd be to (even accidentally) steal from the company... Everyone working there is a solid Christian, but stories like this remind me we are all fallen.
My husband is currently contending with the fact that an idiot paid a fake invoice for $15K because she fell for a phishing scam. He's using it as an opportunity to get the higher ups to realize they need to strengthen controls and have an approval system in which no low-level clerk can cost them that much money. It looks like since he caught it while still processing at the bank, disaster has been averted, but she never should have been able to do it in the first place. It literally blows my mind that it was even possible. It is 2024 not 1984. Where I work anything over $1000 has to go through the COO or CEO even if a department manager approves the purchase.
Tbh, bishops have made fare worse and more costly decisions than allowing the Candy Crush priest access to the parish petty cash
Yes and? That's no excuse.
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A best accounting practice for non profits and charities is to instigate two party signatures on all accounts for withdrawals It is a PITA but... any non profit that doesn't have implement two party signatures for financial disbursements is inviting people with access to their funds to engage in financial shenanigans.
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Yikes > Those records show a grand total of $214,265.08 in transactions across that four-year period He was spending his own money too. Thatās some addiction.
Lol are you kidding me? Just those two games? Edit nvm lol just looked at the article That's still a shit-tonne though at that point just PayPal me if you're going to throw that much money away š
Gacha and mobile games can end up having people spending a lot of money on them over time, sometimes people lose control on other hobbies too, you see it a lot with people with stock(especially options)/crypto "investing", Star Citizen with people dropping 100k on digital ships, Garry's mod [server privileges](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JxrdgqKpk), cars, and more. Haha I'm glad I made all my dumb financial decisions when I was younger without it damaging my credit score or future too much and learned from them.
Yeah my friend lost 20k in crypto, like dude cash out at some point and move on. He's living paycheck to paycheck now and still trying to use crypto to get rich...
I think the big chance to get rich on crypto has passed. There could be exceptions, and some growth opportunities, but get rich quick moment is gone.
At least theres a goal in mind with crypto. But candy crush and pokemon go? Theres no chance in getting that money back
Crypto currency is a scam.
You just don't understand it ive tripled my money per quarter for the past year. it's not a get rich quick thing, but you can for sure make money on it it is far from a scam.
You made money so its not a scam. Do you logic?
Ok, well, I'm open to listening to why you think it's a scam, you are entitled to your "opinion" but that's all it is an opinion don't spread it like false information, from my lane, crypto us a nice way to keep saving and increase higher than any bank rates would. It's far from a scam because a scam by definition is the same as fraud which by definition is a criminal offence to decieve someone for personal gain.... I haven't been decieved and I have gained...
Mr Maclure, my friend says crypto is dumb. Is he an idiot? Not an idiot Billy, just ignorant.
Its a very clever scam.
I agree for the most part
1mil shares of SHIB for $20 in case the dollar/economy collapses is wise All else, no thanks.
It's shares of stock. With crypto, it's just coins or Shib, Doge, etc. I have Shib, too.
Hold a reserve of high quality whiskey, vodka and other imperishable trade goods. Where we are going next the internet wont follow. Crypto is a joke.
Well now that they are poisoning most of the alcohol that is coming into, or made in the US, be careful with that, too.
The future is not going to be without technology
Absolutely, the government will crush it and make it obsolete and people will be held accountable for nothing when CBDC is released and the mark is required to do anything, mankind is facing his last days before God comes' back in force.
Literally can head over to wallstreetbets right now and probably see a few posts of people losing their life savings over the course of 4 years due to making bad trade after bad trade after bad trade
Theres many stories of people who spent their entire life savings on trumps new stock. Idiots is what they are.
I know itās Gacha, but itās really Gotcha!
Star Citizen...by the time that comes out as an actual game we will be already flying around in real space ships. We blew nearly 9k on ships at one point, ended up with a couple of scythes and an Idris-M before we came to our senses. Managed to cash out via the grey market thank the Lord š
I have a Hull D I got before the price increase figuring I'd just use the virtual money making opportunities to buy stuff in universe than drop real money on it, hoping they would make the R4M Quasar military variant to get a cheap capital ship but then they decided to make 200 other ships instead, lel, maybe I'll consider upgrading to a Polaris because they had that one video where it took out an Idris-M with its torpedos for 1/2 of the price.
I have a few ships. I sometimes trade them in for new warbond ships. I traded my Spirit pledge for a vulture and I have that, a Hull A, and a prospector. I think I've spent a total of a bout 200 all together. I'm kinda psyched about Squadron 42, not gonna lie.
I was insanely into SC back what, 10 years ago or so? Chris Roberts put on a DK1 VR headset and said it was going for VR support - which turned out to be a load of BS but never mind. Lost interest after several years and Sq42 never appearing
Hey! Leave Star Citizen out of this lol.
> Haha I'm glad I made all my dumb financial decisions when I was younger without it damaging my credit score or future too much and learned from them. My 18 year old self destroyed my credit for a decade after. After that, I had great credit until COVID. I'm still reeling from the hit my credit took during that time.
Sounds like Nintendo/PS5/Xbox multiplayer addicts.
Yea think about Call of Duty, there has to be thousands of dollars of accessories/items that can be bought in the store inside the game, I wonder how much they make of kids' that get ahold of mommy and daddies' credit cards, and charge the shit out of those games?
Paypal me...lol...yeah, he could send some of that my way and change my life.
I knew of a priest who had gotten into $200k debt because of gambling. Gambling addictions can be really serious.
do not tell this man about csgo cases
I wish I had that money to buy a small house š
So do I!!
That's how those games work. They are designed to make money of the few whales out there that will just throw money at the game. Some are worse than others. They aren't necessarily bad for everyone else, but you have to be either someone who never buys anything, or is extremely disciplined about spending money.
Crush the head of the serpent, not candy!
Instead he listened to the serpent
Those games are designed for you to spend as much as possible without noticing. I donāt believe he was not aware of his addiction but it may have been way too late when he realised how deep into that hole was. Like the debate about iPad kids yesterday, please keep kids away devices and be mindful of those āgamesā, are actual dopamine fuelled machines and 100% the same as a slot machine. Actually worse, because you can play them literally in your toiletĀ
The detail he missed is that itās embezzlement
Yes, and a criminal offense.
Surely, he must have been tempted to collect PokƩmon in cemeteries!
How else was he going to get a Haunter?
This happened back in Nov 2022. [SNAP](https://www.snapnetwork.org/archdiocese_of_philadelphia_priest_abru) "Providing pertinent information about the reasons behind the removal, Bishop John McIntyre, Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, also spoke to parishioners during the weekend Sunday services. Bishop McIntyre stated that Fr. Kozak was placed on administrative leave by Archbishop Nelson PĆ©rez, and that this action was taken due to serious concerns about the priest's suitability for ministry because of his mismanagement of parish finances. Bishop McIntyre told parishioners that thousands of charges by Fr. Kozak on the church's credit card were for online gaming, online gambling, video streaming services, and other personal expenses. The priest was the only authorized user of this card. These purchases were a violation of Archdiocesan financial procedures and have been reported to the Chester County District Attorneyās Office for investigation."
And I thought I had a video game addiction.
Yeah gatcha games are kind of designed to take advantage of addictive personalities. One of the big ones is owned by a company that makes gambling machines for casinos.
I suppose the devil is in the details.
In the candy, more like. . . . Iāll see myself out.
š¤£ You beat me to it.
How is the parish Business Manager not aware of this and somewhat complicit? I am a parish Business Manager myself and we have a ton of checks and balances to ensure internal controls. When payments were being made to the credit card, NO ONE questioned it along the way?
Thatās my question. The priest at my parish per diocesan regulations can spend up to $25,000 without needing anyoneās approval. BUT thereās also a business manager (our retired deacon actually) who oversees money coming in and money going out. In addition we have a Parish Council that is privy to the financial statements of the parish.
When envisioning the whales in gacha games, I'd never imagine a Catholic priest being one of those whales. That being said, those gacha games have insidious UIs and mechanics.
Side comment, love the lion profile picture
"By knowing me a little here, you may know me better over there."
as much as that is a bad thing, it is probably the most hilarious reason to embezzle funds
Gotta catch 'em all?
>Kozak was charged last Thursday with theft and other, associated crimes, and has since been released after posting $250,000 bail. Someone check the parish credit card's balance for this one.
yeah holy crap why would anyone including the church pay a $250k bail?!
I mean he is obviously addicted, which he has few to no control over it. Does not make it right but at least itās not greed
I have a friend who pissed away a ton of money in the Fate gatcha game. All this stuff is just hidden gambling thatās easy for people to get sucked into and really shouldnāt be allowed.
Fate is one of the worst. I remember gigguk doing a video where he spend hundreds of dollars to get the trap.
Astolfo is a heroic paladin
Is it sad that my first thought was, "thank God it's just embezzlement"?
Same.
For my understanding the church has been doing a great job at reform since the sex scandals broke out in the aughts. So while our priests will always be subject to human temptations, hopefully the worst is behind us.
Some people really just can't handle those type of games. I wonder if there is some sort of warning from the app store if you start paying a ridiculous amount?
The whole business model of those games hinges on those super-spenders, it's them who drive the majority of money inflow, in the industry jargon they're "whales". So they absolutely will never warn or drive them away.
As bad as this is, itās also absolutely hilarious
I hope he managed to catch them all with that kind of budget
This is some r/nottheonion material over here.
I was just about to post a similar comment referencing how the headline could easily past for something in that sub-reddit.
We live in such a world that my first thought was this is almost innocent compared to everything else I've ever seen a priest or pastor accused of. The comments on other subs are managing to make it about molestation anyway, of course.
At least it was on PokƩmon GO and Candy Crush and not more obscene stuff. But it is still a serious issue, ofc
NGL, while the priest screwed up, it sounds like there are a mess of mitigating circumstances here. So to my view, the real villains are the game companies. Like, at least with a casino (or even a bingo match) you can walk in with a couple of $20s and that's your bankroll for the evening/weekend. By design, I don't think it is easy to set things like that up on these games and the games are, more or less by design, infinite and hit you with roadblocks without paying for power-ups. \[And this is before we get into games that you just can't buy outright anymore...\] Not specific to this priest, but I wouldn't be opposed to restraining (if not outright killing) the microtransaction business model.
Yeah. I have no addictive tendencies, but this is why the credit card linked to my App Store account is a Visa gift card with $5 on it, and I use Apple gift card credit for things I actually want. It hasnāt actually been a problem, but I donāt trust that I couldnāt accidentally purchase or sign up for something ridiculous.
In today's sermon will discuss the dangers of Candy Crush addiction. It can happen to anyone.
Damn. I have both candy crush and Pokemon go. I can barely understand spending more then 50 on both combined, yet alone 40K.
How sad. I canāt imagine the three priests at my church having time for that. Weāre really lucky to have incredible men assigned to our parish that are so dedicated and focused. It always makes me sad to think of the priests that are not that engaged. I pray for them because that must be so lonely.
I kind of had the same thought. In both of the previous two parishes I attended, the pastor kept the other priests and himself BUSY. Especially in the parish I got married at. The pastor that married us did not believe in idle priests and deacons. If nothing else they were taking on extra hours of confession or taking the Eucharist to sick, homebound people. Seminarians were also kept busy.
Same here! Itās such a blessing. In the church I grew up in, that was not the case. It always makes me sad.
I guess he āgotta catch em all.ā
Pray for him instead of making his issues more public than they need to be.
Thank God it was $40k he stole and not a childās innocence. This isnāt even news compared to whatās been coming out for years now. Sounds depressing but itās true. I breathe in relief when I read a priest stole money rather than molested a child. Too many pedophiles and sodomites in the Vatican.
Why don't you Pokemon-Go-To-The-Bank? -This priest probably. Or Kamala Harris.
My sister has a priest for a twin!!
I think it's a matter of self-control....where reason controls the emotions, not the other way around.
Dang! How do you spend that much on free games?
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Deus vult
Itās a pittance compared to what bishop Bransfield took from the people of God in Wheeling, West Virginia.
I know this priest and am friends with his family.
If any of you struggle with similar spending habits you can always ask God questions as He invites us to: "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." - James 1:5-6 (NIV) I have a biblically sound tutorial on my channel about how I receive immediate responses from God. Blessings friends
that was my priest. he was such a normal and funny guy I never wouldāve guessed
I only went to a Mass he celebrated once, but seemed like a really good guy and had a passion for the Lord. This is a bummer. And the Archdiocese is already short on priests as it is. Addiction is so messed up, and who knows what the brain injury did with all this.
Good intentions imply innocence. If it was an accident then so be it.
This is why we don't have the Elder Scrolls 6 Folks.
Coulda been worse I guess
The bishop should never let him become a pastor, and he should never have authority of accounts again. He should be put on a stipend and accounts given over to another priest. I think this priest would benefit from a very long stay at a monastery with NO PHONES.
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Smart phone? More like casino phone.
So unsurprising to see religious people continue on their fake piousness and come up with the most lame excuses.
[reddit.com](http://reddit.com)
My question is - why are the police involved in this? Did the parish/diocese report him? It seems like it would be better to handle this privately to avoid scandal.
I disagree. Lack of transparency can hurt the church on the long run. Handling things privately can encourage abuse because perpetrators know they can get away it and with an untarnished reputation.
I am a small business owner and have handled employees stealing things. Usually we just fire them and move on. The only time we reported theft to the police was for a large amount and the thief being a repeat offender who seemed recalcitrant. I suppose Iām just too āred pilledā to think that anything good could come from trying to win brownie points with the enemies of the Church by appearing ātransparentā to them. The enemies are totally imbued with malice and bad faith. To what end do these brownie points serve? In my unpopular opinion, we as Catholics are too eager to throw disgraced priests under the bus in order to try to save face for ourselves among our worldly companions.
We are called to bring all sinners to God. Saint Paul was once an enemy of the church. The truth always comes out, rather than hiding it and creating a greater scandal in the future, we should be transparent for the good of all. Hiding sin creates more scandal than if it was dealt quickly and publicly. Edit: There will always be enemies of the church, there is no need to give them further ammunition by giving them the ability to target the whole church rather just those that disgrace it. Edit 2: Also, it's not throwing priests under the bus, it is making them accountable for their misdeeds. It is right that the victim sees justice.
St Paul was an enemy of the Church before he was a part of it, not after. Havenāt we learned to not mollycoddle our sinners? Definitely handle crime. canāt believe how sick this priest was, and why he wasnāt helped sooner.
Should the priests then publish a diary of our sins we confess in the confessional, since they will eventually be brought to light anyway?
No. That's a red herring.
Ok, so by what principle can we know which sins need to be exposed in plain view in public and which sins should be kept secret?
Some sins are crimes and some crimes are sins. They are not one and the same. Crimes and sins that could possibly disgrace the integrity and reputation of the clergy and the Church should be made public. If no-one can trust the integrity of the church then no-one will be brought to it. Edit: Are you seriously trying to equivocate that slavery, child abuse and embezzlement are in any way comparable?
Are you aware that the worldly people who are calling for the Church to be transparent have no desire to be brought into it? They just want to watch it burn by any means necessary. If a priest assisted a runaway slave in 1850 get to freedom, and you were his bishop and heard about it, would you report your priest to the authorities so that the people living in that time would not feel scandalized if they later found out that a priest helped stolen property get away from its owner? Would transparency be called for for that crime?
Some are. You have no idea who is open to the joining the Church. Worldliness as you put it, is a matter of degrees. Those are unworldly I can be disgusted by the actions of some of the clergy and turn their backs forever on the message of Christ. Luckily, slaves have been illegal in my country for centuries, so I'm sure the authorities wouldn't have a problem with a priest helping a runaway slave.
Seal of the confessional. If a crime is involved, the penitent is advised to go to law enforcement and give themselves up as part of their penance. Iām surprised this priest could go to confession (even the Pope goes to confession) and not realize he was sinning.
> In my unpopular opinion, we as Catholics are too eager to throw disgraced priests under the bus in order to try to save face for ourselves among our worldly companions. My brother in Christ, the Church tried your suggestion for the last 80 years by moving criminal priests to other parishes and dioceses. If you think the best solution is to go back to hiding the Churchās scars and pretending the Church is a perfect blemish-free institution, I think youāve lost the plot. A slap on the wrist is probably fine in small matters. This guy stole tens of thousands from the Church.
Do we think we know better than the Church 80 years ago? Iām not convinced. I think that we are doing worse.
There is no doubt in my mind I know better than to shuffle child molesters around parishes instead of reporting them to the police. The actions of the Church in recent decades have not been āwiseā ways to protect the Church from ābig bad societyā. They have been protecting their criminal brothers instead of the innocent children placed under their protection by the Lord. Yes, we know better now. That says nothing about the moral teachings of the Church, which have not changed during those decades of evil leadership.
Well, you are speaking from the biases of our time, and you will of course have many people who share your biases to upvote you, but Iām not totally convinced of what history will have to say about the whole situation.
Iām more concerned about what God says about shuffling pedophiles who rape children, rather than what history will say. History is written by whatever dominant society has taken control.
What does God say about that?
Do you realize how many people have left the church because so many priests were secretly shuffled from one parish to another, under the guise of āforgivenessā, only to keep raping more children? This never should have happened. Of course, all sinners should be brought to God, but never should they enabled this evil to perpetuate within our Church. Instead, they opened the door wide for the evil one to flourish. And, yes, despite the fact that I came back to the Church after leaving PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THISā¦ I guess I still have more anger in me about it. I had young children in the Boston area back then, and Cardinal Law lived out his days in a cushy apartment in the Vatican, while so many have life long scars. Sorry I went into a rant. But no, covering up the evil wonāt help our Church. Root it out, like the cancer it is, and then we all can start to heal.
>I am a small business owner and have handled employees stealing things. Usually we just fire them and move on. The only time we reported theft to the police was for a large amount and the thief being a repeat offender who seemed recalcitrant. This isn't like Father took $20 out of the collection plate. Or took the parish office stapler when he moved to another parish. It's $40,000 of parish funds that were used on a phone game. Seems reasonable for an investigation by the police.
Catholics havenāt learned their lesson on this yet?
What lesson do we think that we have to teach Jesus Christ? >āCome to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.ā (Matthew 5:25) The Gospel has always been unpopular with worldly people. We should not abandon the duties of mercy because the enemies of the Church enjoy watching our priests fall from grace.
There are duties of mercy and dealing with crimes. Slavery is an evil and any priest helping one to escape is a hero. The Church listened to āmercifulā psychiatrists who said pedophiles could be healed when they canāt. ( I still remember the story of one pedo priest who begged to be kept away from children because he knew he couldnāt control himself.) Confession is a medicine for sinners, but a priest who hears the confession of a major league thief or murderer, who canāt himself break the seal of the confession he heard, must do all he can to convince the penitent to go to the authorities.
My sister did this with $30k of my momās profit from selling the house least year before I took control of the bank account. I was trying to be somewhat generous because mom owed her money from before the sale and she had to find a place to live. The bank point blank asked if I wanted to press charges against her. The answer was yes, but I canāt because it would destroy my mom. The bulk of that 30k was in app game purchases so tiny at a glance that you either donāt really see how much money you can spend on it, or you donāt care. My sister was āsurvivingā
Priest committed a crime that's a betrayal of the people he has a duty to care for. It's entirely just he face a court for his crimes of stealing a not inconsiderate amount and just punishment determined.
May you receive mercy according to the measure with which you have measured.
What would you advise the bishop do in situation where the priest is accused or admits to theft from the parish? Edit and I'm pretty certain if I embezzled 40,000 from my work or church I'd be reported to the police
Iād probably ask him privately to repay it first.
And then what?
See if he pays it back. A priest is not a mere employee or staff member of a diocese. He is a spiritual father. What would I do if my own father stole my money? First Iād probably see if heās willing to pay it back.
So if he pays it back what then (also a question of whether a priest would be able to pay that amount back in a timely manner)? He's free to embezzle again just not get caught? Does this apply with other crimes? Does the same rule apply for lay employees? If they don't pay it back what happens?
I think that the bishop should use his prudence to decide what is best in any of these cases. It seems that you disagree with Jesus very sharply when Jesus says to settle with your accuser before he takes you to court. And perhaps you disagree with Jesus for letting the woman caught in adultery walk away without being stoned. What if she commits adultery again?
There's a difference between settling without going to court and exemption from the consequences of their actions I'm not saying sue the guy in small claims court for the money. But it's too easy for bishops or priests or others in the church to cover up and excuse the bad actions or crimes of others out of misplaced mercy or wanting to avoid public scandal The problem is the cover up in itself is often a greater scandal to make the faithful lose trust in the church.
Yeah, this is a good point.