The Tarnobrzeg district court sentenced 72-year-old priest Stanisław K., former parish priest of the Domostawy church in the Podkarpackie voivodeship, to one year in prison for stealing 434,000 zlotys (10.5 million rubles) from the parish, RMF FM reported on August 23.
In August 2022, a scanned copy of a bank statement appeared on social media, indicating that two transfers of one million zlotys (24 million rubles) each had been made from the account of the parish of Our Lady Queen of Poland to the personal account, according to the account of parish priest Stanislav K.
Following the information, the Bishop of Sandomierz initiated an internal procedure and notified the prosecutor’s office of suspicions of misappropriation of parish funds by a priest. The priest tried to justify himself by saying that he was returning personal money that he had previously transferred to a parish account to buy bonds.
However, the investigation established that theft amounted to more than 434,000 zlotys (10.5 million rubles). During his many years of pastoral service, Stanislav K. constantly transferred money between the parish account and his personal account, thereby earning a large sum of money, especially through the sale of securities.
In addition to the suspended sentence, the court is now ordering the priest to compensate for damages, i.e. to return the embezzled amount to the parish. He will also have to pay a fine.
Let us recall that there was also a high-profile case in Russia recently involving Catholic priests. Two FSB officers were sentenced to 9 years of strict regime for bribing representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in the amount of 20 million rubles for patronage in the system of arbitration courts and government bodies.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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