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Michigan Priest Charged With Stealing $700,000 From Church
HNGN ^ | Apr 24, 2014 | Oulimata Ba

Posted on 04/24/2014 6:37:00 PM PDT by Gamecock

A Catholic priest in Michigan has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a church in Troy, including money donated by the family of a dead parishioner.

Reverend Edward Belczak and another church administrator were indicted for theft of $700,000 from the St. Thomas More Church in Troy and the Archdiocese of Detroit between 2004 and 2012, The Detroit News reported. The pair allegedly concealed the theft by forging documents to the Archdiocese that showed the parish's expenses to be a lesser amount than it really was.

Belczak, 69, and his accomplice, 67-year-old Janice Verschuren, face several charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, according to the indictment released Wednesday. Both face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, the newspaper reported.

The money included donations given on Mother's and Father's Day, as well as a $350,000 donation to the church from the relatives of a parishioner who passed away.

Supporters of Belczak, described as a popular priest who has touched many lives, are not convinced of his guilt. He has been a pastor for over 30 years.

"He's presumed innocent and the conclusion is he is innocent," Jerome Sabbota, the priest's attorney, told The Detroit News. "We haven't seen any evidence. All we hear are allegations."

The priest reportedly used some of the stolen funds to pay for a $500,000 condominium in Wellington, Florida several years ago. Prosecutors placed the condo under a forfeiture suit two days before the indictment, the newspaper reported.

The Archdiocese did not offer specific details about the pending case against Belczak and Verschuren, but the two have not worked at the parish in over a year.

"The archdiocese will continue to cooperate with authorities as this matter moves through the courts," Archdiocese spokesman Joe Kohn told the newspaper in a statement. "As such, there is nothing more the archdiocese can or will say at this stage in the proceedings."

In the meantime, Belczak continues to serve other churches in the area, according to The Detroit News.


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1 posted on 04/24/2014 6:37:00 PM PDT by Gamecock
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: Springman; cyclotic; netmilsmom; RatsDawg; PGalt; FreedomHammer; queenkathy; madison10; ...
From what I've seen in the local news he has an accomplice.

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Michigan legislative action thread
3 posted on 04/24/2014 6:40:07 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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**Belczak, 69, and his accomplice, 67-year-old Janice Verschuren**

Janice?


4 posted on 04/24/2014 6:40:18 PM PDT by Gamecock (The covenant is a stunning blend of law and love. (TK))
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To: Gamecock
Reverend Edward Belczak

Wouldn't that be Father Edward Belczak? I'm asking here, are priests commonly referred to as "Reverend"?

Elsewhere the article refers to him as pastor. Is that also a common reference to a priest?

5 posted on 04/24/2014 6:49:05 PM PDT by prairiebreeze (Don't be afraid to see what you see. -- Ronald Reagan)
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To: Gamecock

Yea and I bet neither of them are virgins or celibate! Sniff.


6 posted on 04/24/2014 6:52:59 PM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Send your dollar to see the birth certificate)
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To: Gamecock

Must have been absent when #8 was discussed.


7 posted on 04/24/2014 6:53:20 PM PDT by JPG (Yes We Can morphs into Make It Hurt.)
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To: Gamecock

Millions of churches and their pastors do the “right thing” everyday but noooo it doesn’t count one iota if one man of the cloth is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and goes and does something like this. That’s how the Devil works; he finds a weakness and seizes on it and reveals it to the world to cast suspicion on the rest so that he can draw as many people away from God as he can. The MSM is his tool of delivery at the moment.


8 posted on 04/24/2014 6:57:28 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: jsanders2001

Doing the right thing is never newsworthy.

.


9 posted on 04/24/2014 7:04:03 PM PDT by Mears
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To: jsanders2001

Just one? Well it seems to me lately just tooling around the Booksmillion store that selling church and selling our LORD has become big business. My daughter has been to the Vatican and says the wealth dripping in that place would make you vomit. It should be turned into the world’s largest orphanage and widow’s home as CHRIST directed. That Pope tiara could probably feed a country and his pension is $3,300, money to play with because Vatican will pay everything he needs till he dies. Money has no place in CHURCH. JESUS already said that.


10 posted on 04/24/2014 7:12:03 PM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Send your dollar to see the birth certificate)
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To: Cats Pajamas

No. Not just one. Just trying to make a point...: )


11 posted on 04/24/2014 7:13:49 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Cats Pajamas

Hmmmm. Spend all the wealth, a great deal of it historical and priceless... sell it to collectors all at once and the price of each piece would plummet. Then give it all to the poor. Then they would spend it and all just be poor again and they wouldn’t have the Vatican but just an empty shell with people peeing and pooping in the stairwells and defacing the frescos. Sounds like a great plan. And do you have specific sites where Jesus said to liquidate the wealth in the Vatican? How about giving away all the gold in Ft. Knox while we’re at it and sell all the wonderful historical documents and artifacts in DC. This could be fun. For about six months.


12 posted on 04/24/2014 7:17:43 PM PDT by Mercat
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To: Gamecock

Paging Joel Osteen . . .


13 posted on 04/24/2014 7:19:55 PM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: jsanders2001

The Catholic church gets the scrutiny because there is an organizational structure the media can tie it to.

We Protestants don’t have that kind of structure and the churches operate mostly independently but there are plenty of pastors who commit crimes. The lack of structure has its advantages and disadvantages.


14 posted on 04/24/2014 7:28:51 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: goodwithagun
Joel get plenty of attention on these pages! Keyword YBPDLN
15 posted on 04/24/2014 7:39:12 PM PDT by Gamecock (The covenant is a stunning blend of law and love. (TK))
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To: Mercat

WOW. YES YOU ARE RIGHT. I W A S A L L W R O N G.
The churches with all their money are doing such a good job bringing people to CHRIST.


16 posted on 04/24/2014 7:39:33 PM PDT by Cats Pajamas
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To: Cats Pajamas
"My daughter has been to the Vatican and says the wealth dripping in that place would make you vomit. It should be turned into the world’s largest orphanage and widow’s home as CHRIST directed. "

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Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"

John 12:3-5

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17 posted on 04/24/2014 7:46:38 PM PDT by Heart-Rest ("Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee." - St. Augustine)
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To: Cats Pajamas

Are you a Christian? How ‘bout we start with you, sell all you own and give it to the poor.


18 posted on 04/24/2014 7:47:51 PM PDT by tiki
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To: Heart-Rest

Thank you Heart-Rest. May GOD bless your sweet soul.


19 posted on 04/24/2014 7:48:32 PM PDT by Cats Pajamas
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To: Mercat
Hmmmm. Spend all the wealth, a great deal of it historical and priceless... sell it to collectors all at once and the price of each piece would plummet. Then give it all to the poor. Then they would spend it and all just be poor again and they wouldn’t have the Vatican but just an empty shell with people peeing and pooping in the stairwells and defacing the frescos. Sounds like a great plan. And do you have specific sites where Jesus said to liquidate the wealth in the Vatican? How about giving away all the gold in Ft. Knox while we’re at it and sell all the wonderful historical documents and artifacts in DC. This could be fun. For about six months.

I hate to pop your bubble, but you're not helping things.

20 posted on 04/24/2014 7:48:48 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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