West Bend, WI – Leaders at Holy Angels Parish on Eighth Avenue in West Bend, Wi, notified parishioners this week about some financial discrepancies surrounding the Love One Another Capital Campaign.
According to Rev. Howard Haase, Holy Angels was one of 13 parishes affected by what appears to be one man working for a third-party organization that helped collect promised pledges.
Holy Angels letter to parishioners 12-2023Click the arrow at the bottom of Page 1 to access Page 2
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Below is the notice that appeared in November in the Holy Angels parish bulletin.
Haase said when he initially heard the report about the donation discrepancies, he was “disappointed for several reasons.”
One was how this event casts doubt and hinders trust on future donation requests and the second was how the situation now puts the parish in a precarious position.
‘We had planned to do several projects, including the major project with the columbarium in the cemetery and the roof on the church. We were also going to do some inside decorating of the church to clean it up dress it up just a bit,” he said.
“With the unfortunate circumstances, rather than making what we thought was $2.4 million, it’s now closer to around $800,000, because of the falsified papers… and the crazy part is no money was stolen.”
Haase assures everyone who has given money “all of that money is safe. It’s exactly where it needs to be.”
The downfall comes with the falsified pledges. “Unfortunately, we thought we had made our goal, and we hadn’t; it was disappointment,” he said.
Questioned what was to gain, Haase said “That’s the $64,000 question.”
“The company itself was paid a flat fee. That’s what they got. The agents we worked with, for example, they were paid a regular salary, there was no financial gain, or incentive or percentages, either for the company or for the individual. That’s why the question everybody had, why? What was the motivation for someone to do this?”
Haase said the Milwaukee Archdiocese, who contracted with the company, has been very transparent.
“We worked with diocesan representative Brad Berghaus, and I was told they had a complete investigation of all of the other agents and all of that came out just fine. It was just this one individual who was no longer working for that company, and he did this to 13 parishes.”
The flaw in the system, according to Haase, was there were no check and balances on the pledges.
“Somehow, someone from the company could have said, we need to verify that you pledged a million dollars, no matter what the agent said. That seems to be where the hole was, or the flaw. My personal feeling was, there weren’t the checks and balances that needed to be there,” Haase said.
The reaction to the news from parishioners, according to Haase, is the concern that pledges made by members of the congregation are safe.
“I have been able to say to the parishioners, every one of them, anything that you wrote, or any pledge you made, all of that is safe,” he said.
Questioned how Holy Angels Parish is moving forward, Haase said, “We’re going to finish the columbarium in the cemetery. We may not have quite enough to cover everything for the cemetery, but we will be bringing monies in because of selling the niches.”
“The other two projects will be put on hold until a later date, in order to make sure the finances are in order to put a roof on the church and to do the inside decorating.”
Haase praised the trustees on the parish council and said, “we will make sure that we have the financing in order.”
Questioned whether they will work with the Archdiocese again on fundraising, Haase said, “As far as a major campaign through the diocese in the future, that would remain to be seen.”
A call has been placed to the Milwaukee Archdiocese. This story will be updated when information becomes available.
Haase was not aware what other parishes were affected in the campaign.
On a side note: The columbarium is located on the northeast end of Holy Angels Cemetery on Decorah Road. There are six columbaria with 100 niches on both sides for a total of 600 niches in this first phase of construction.
