Confronted by allegations of financial misconduct, the head of the Orthodox Church in America has dismissed a priest from a top administrative post and hired a major law firm to investigate.
Several church insiders, including a former treasurer and a former head of the church's audit committee, have claimed that Father Kondratick and former Metropolitan Theodosius diverted millions of dollars in grants, bequests and designated charitable contributions into unaudited discretionary accounts that were used for everything from paying down deficits in the church operating budget to blackmail.
A prominent critic of the church's financial practices praised the moves, while an attorney for the Rev. Robert Kondratick, the ousted chancellor, said his client is a scapegoat.
Mark Stokoe, whose Orthodox Christians for Accountability Web site has detailed the accusations, was encouraged that Metropolitan Herman retained a law firm known for investigating corporate misdeeds.
After six years of failed attempts to bring the issues before the church's Metropolitan Council of laity, clergy and bishops, critics set up a Web site at www.ocanews.org. They said there had been no full, independent, certified audit of the church's books since 1996.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
No comments:
Post a Comment