Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
TWO CATHOLIC SCHOOL nuns in California have admitted to embezzling about $500,000, and using the funds over the years for travel and gambling in Las Vegas, their order said yesterday.
Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, who are said to be best friends, took the money from tuition, fees and donations at St James Catholic School in Torrance, south of Los Angeles.
“We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account,” an attorney for the school told parents and alumni at a recent meeting, the Press-Telegram reported.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said the missing money was discovered during a routine audit and it is believed the nuns operated their scheme over at least a decade.
Kreuper was principal at the school for 29 years until her retirement earlier this year. Chang was a teacher for 20 years and she also retired this year.
“Our community is concerned and saddened by this situation and regret any injury to our long relationship with the families of the school,” the Sister of St Joseph of Carondelet, the nuns’ order, said in a statement sent to AFP.
The Sisters of St Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St James School.
‘Deep remorse’
Parents were informed about the nuns’ misdeeds in a 28 November letter from the school’s pastor, Monsignor Michael Meyers.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, states that Kreuper and Chang had taken a “substantial” amount of school funds for their personal use and the matter was uncovered during an audit conducted after Kreuper’s retirement.
“Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana have expressed to me and asked that I convey to you, the deep remorse they each feel for their actions and ask for your forgiveness and prayers,” Meyers wrote.
They and their order pray that you have not lost trust or faith in the educators and administrators of the school.
He added that no other school staff were implicated in the theft and that police had been alerted.
Meyers said the school did not wish to pursue criminal proceedings against the pair, who spent decades as students’ moral enforcers.
However, Adrian Alarcon, the head of media relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told AFP that the Archdiocese didn’t want to just let the matter drop and planned to “become a complaining party.”
The nuns allegedly got away with their crime by depositing some checks made out to the school for tuition and other fees into a bank account different than the one used by the school.
Meyers told parents in his letter that the two Sisters were cooperating with an investigation to determine the full amount of misappropriated funds.
“I want to assure you that the investigation has disclosed that, notwithstanding this misappropriation, no student or program at St James has suffered any loss of educational resources, opportunities, or innovations,” he added. “In sum, the education of your children has not and will not be affected by these events.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Should be sanctioned just like Russia.
Occupation breeds resistance
Ireland
Palestine
Ukraine
@Liam Ó hAodha: Ireland isn’t occupied anymore though
@Ciaran: spoken like a true southerner.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: a true partitionist more like. They are a minority in south but highly vocal.
@Liam Ó hAodha: it only in Ukraine that resistance fighters are hailed. In Ireland and Palestine they are “ terrorists”.
@M Bowe: bombing civilians is pretty much terrorism in anyones book ..
@Ciaran:
Wow! Does your ignorance knows any bounds
@M Bowe: Provo criminals and Hamas are terrorists, only a few days ago marked the 50th Anniversary of one of the darkest days of the Troubles, when in a barbaric spree of hate & sectarianism, the Provos detonated 22 bombs inside 75 minutes, murdering 9 innocent people and injuring 130 more. Pure terrorism.
@Ciaran: and I’d say you think the Old IRA who freed this country are heroes. I think they were by the way. But how were they any better than the Provos?
@Sumsoar Khan: military targets v civilian targets. The provos always say it was a war. Ok if it’s considered a war then bombing civilians is a war crime. Puts them at the same level as isis and Russia right now..
@M Bowe: you’re massively mistaken if you think we are in the minority. Their are a lot of us that would rather it stay the same, than have to deal with the mess that would be left if the brits release control of the 6 counties. You lads think it’s going to be a great party when the day comes. Thousands up north will fight till their last breath before their will be peace. And this time it won’t be a conflict that will limit itself to the 6 counties.
@Ciaran: Name a conflict/war in which civilian populations weren’t bombed intentionally or unintentionally?
War is savage and brutal but mostly started by a select few international land grabbers
@Liam Ó hAodha: of course , bombs at shopping centres and highly populated civilian centres where there are no military targets or “the enemy” completely justified then…f00l
@M Bowe: let’s call a spade a spade and call it for it is. If you deliberately target civilians as the IRA did then that is terrorism.
hamas and the IRA fit that description.
@Martin O Connell: the people of the north and the Republic of Ireland had a vote. It’s called the good Friday agreement where the majority of the north wanted to stay with the uk until such time they want to join the south.
@Stephen Kearon:
Hamas is the democratically elected government in Gaza.
It was only designated as “terrorist” by Apartheid Israel after it won the election.
The terrorists are thrisraeli government and its henchmen.
@Stephen Kearon: your opinions are as relevant as my last fart,and that dissipated hours ago.
@Martin O Connell: so you are gonna stay on your knees in face of unionist/ British threats of immediate and terrible war, the same terrorist threat which gave birth to that failed sectarian state 100 years ago.
@Alan Richard Scott Jr.: as British did in Ballymurphy and Derry in previous 10 months of Black Friday. No one side of any war can claim the moral high ground on actions.
@M Bowe: I’m not on my knees to anyone. Thanks to Michael Collins and all that negotiated the treaty, I never will be on my knees.
@M Bowe: your last fart probably came out your mouth.
In context could you imagine the SAS going into Dublin to arrest “suspected terrorist’s” and murdering 2 people. It’s wrong ,it’s illegal and they should be sanctioned by the rest of the world.
Typical.
have your say