Clergymen believe the money put in the collection baskets and plates passed pew to pew Sunday morning is an offering not to the church, but to God.But ensuring that the tithes of the faithful reach church coffers leaves no room for blind trust of those who handle the money.
The Dec. 17 arrest of a former parish housekeeper in the theft of more than $173,000 over four years from an unlocked safe at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church in Green Tree is an example of what happens when policies aimed at safeguarding collections aren't followed, Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese leaders say. Thefts plague hundreds of U.S. churches each year, according to one of the top two church insurers in the country.
The first precaution for churches that could be vulnerable is to acknowledge the need for scrutiny of those with access to donations, said Jeff Hanna, a police detective-turned-minister from Ohio. Hanna has written two books and numerous articles instructing churches on keeping collections safe.
"Churches are notorious for not wanting to change," Hanna said. "A lot of churches are operating under guidelines 20, 30 or 40 years old, and they have to understand that things have changed."
Hanna is executive director of the church risk-management division of GuideOne, an insurance company based in Des Moines, Iowa, that provides liability insurance for 45,000 churches nationwide. GuideOne handles an average of 1,800 theft claims from churches each year, totaling $2.8 million.
The company insures about 1,400 churches in Pennsylvania.
"Let's be honest. We're all broken people, and we all have the capacity to do bad things," Hanna said. "So it's important to screen people and to know what you've got."
That's not always easy.
In August 1998, the Rev. Walter Benz, 72, admitted stealing $1.3 million over 26 years from St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Hampton and Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Harrison, police said. Benz was suspected of using the money for luxury cars and gambling trips. He died that September.
"You would have thought they would have learned their lesson after that one," said the Rev. Kevin Clementson, pastor of Berkeley Hills Lutheran Church in Ross.
Berkeley Hills Lutheran suffered its own theft scandal in the mid-1970s, said Clementson, who arrived there in 1994. The church now rotates a team of five members who count collections each Sunday and take the checks and cash to a bank the same day for deposit. His church conducts a regular internal audit in addition to an external audit every three to five years. He may increase that to every two years.
"This just encourages good people to remain good people," Clementson said. "My old Uncle Oscar always said you have to pay your tuition to get your education; this congregation paid their tuition a long time ago and got a good education."
As further security, Clementson's church also offers electronic bank transfers to members through Vanco Services of Minnetonka, Minn. The company found the niche industry of providing electronic money transfers to churches in 1997. Now 6,000 churches nationwide, representing 28 denominations, pay 25 cents per transaction along with a setup fee of 50 cents to $1 per parishioner, said Len Thiede, the company's vice president. Several Pittsburgh-area churches use Vanco.
Hanna said more churches, especially ones with large congregations, are using electronic transfers because auto-tithing tends to mean larger, more consistent donations, and it removes the possibility of sticky fingers.
Ken Behr, director of operations at Northway Christian Community in Marshall, said his 5,000-member church works directly with a bank for electronic transfers and has joined the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an 1,100-member organization based in Winchester, Va., that reviews church finance matters ranging from salaries to governing board composition. Donors can even request audited information about their church from the council, which provides a "donor bill of rights."
"What happened at St. Margaret was unfortunate, and that happens sometimes when organizations don't take those kinds of precautions," Behr said.
St. Margaret failed to follow diocesan collection and auditing guidelines, said the Rev. Ronald P. Lengwin, spokesman for the Pittsburgh diocese, which has 215 parishes. "Again, it's because of the trust that's involved," Lengwin said. "It is almost impossible to prevent theft in every instance."
Lengwin said security procedures were tweaked in 1999 after the Benz case, but he said that despite the most recent theft, the diocese's guidelines do not need to be revised. Lengwin said St. Margaret underwent a financial review conducted by a diocese representative within the past year, but he wouldn't comment on the results.
The first rumblings about a possible theft at the church cropped up in March, when Green Tree police learned from West Virginia State Police that deposit bags with checks and envelopes from St. Margaret had been found on a highway near Weirton.
The Rev. Richard Jones, recently appointed pastor of St. Margaret, said the church is using sealed money bags and secured safes for holding cash, especially overnight. Investigators said the church left the safe unlocked, allowing housekeeper Amy Caldwell, 35, of Charleroi, to steal $173,000, taking a few hundred dollars a week for several years.
Lengwin said the church's insurance carrier should cover the losses. Caldwell will face a felony theft charge.
"I think it's the kind of thing that sneaks up on people," the Rev. Blair Morgan, senior pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Shaler, said of money handlers who give in to temptation. "They sit there and mean to put (the money) back, but they get caught up in a situation."
Morgan said his 900-member church keeps donated money "traceable" and in the hands of many to reduce the possibility of theft.
The Rev. Larry Homitsky, council steward for the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, said the 900 congregations he oversees have detailed security guidelines. He said church money counters are rotated each week. At least two people stay with collections at all times; counters must be from different families; and everyone working with the collections must be legally bonded.
Thefts from churches hurt everybody, Homitsky said.
"And it's more than the money," he said. "Because as important as the dollars are, there's a higher importance -- there's an expectation of trust higher than anywhere else in society."
Costly Church Thefts:
- Dec. 14, 2004: Amy J. Caldwell, 35, of Charleroi, is accused of stealing $173,000 from St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church in Green Tree. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
- Nov. 15, 2000: The Rev. William M. Altman is charged with stealing more than $1 million from bank accounts and parishioners of Grace Christian Ministries in West Mifflin. In 2002, he was sentenced to four to eight years in prison and 10 years of probation. He also was forbidden to handle finances for any organization.
- Sept. 4, 1999: The Rev. Walter Benz, 72, dies of an illness shortly after admitting that he stole $1.3 million from two Allegheny County parishes. Even though he wasn't formally charged at the time, investigators said Benz stole the money over 26 years from St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Hampton and Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Harrison.
- January 1998: Former church Secretary Dawn Mehalek, of South Fayette, is accused of stealing almost $500,000 between April 1994 and October 1996 while working as a secretary at Holy Child Parish in Bridgeville. Mehalek pleaded guilty and received five years' probation in June 1999 for apparently writing more than 100 checks to herself and forging the pastor's signature on them.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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