மக்கள் சர்ச்சுக்கு கொடுத்த பணத்தை திருடிய பாதிரியாருக்கு 4 ஆண்டு சிறை

மக்கள் சர்ச்சுக்கு கொடுத்த பணத்தை திருடிய பாதிரியாருக்கு 4 ஆண்டு சிறை தண்டனை விதிக்கப்பட்டது.

Priest who looted parish gets 4 yrs.
NORTH SIDE | Admitted he stole $200,000

July 21, 2007
BY ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporter eherman@suntimes.com
The Rev. Mark Sorvillo -- stripped of his priestly collar last year -- traded his casual summer shirt for a prison uniform Friday.

Sorvillo, 54, pleaded guilty to felony theft for stealing nearly $200,000 from St. Margaret Mary parish on the North Side. Under a plea deal approved by Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, he received a four-year sentence. He will likely serve two years, sources said.

"The defendant admitted he had opened sealed collection bags," among other methods of theft, Assistant State's Attorney Dianne Ghaster said in court Friday.


» Click to enlarge image

Brian Collins, right, attorney for Mark Sorvillo, left, leaves the courthouse after Servillo's sentencing at the Cook County Courts Building Friday in Chicago.
(Jon Sall/John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
Sorvillo became pastor of St. Margaret Mary in 1994. Its parishioners -- who include State's Attorney Dick Devine -- range from lower middle class to affluent.
According to prosecutors, Sorvillo skimmed more than $40,000 from church collections between June 1999 and March 2005, wrote checks from parish accounts to himself and his creditors, and charged more than $62,000 at Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Marshall Field's to the parish. He also inflated his own pay by 25 percent, according to an audit by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

In addition, Sorvillo used church funds to pay his credit card bills, charging meals, trips and purchases at high-end stores to the parish. The charges included meals at such famous New York restaurants as Cafe Des Artistes and Jean Georges, as well as restaurants in Venice, Rome and Florence.

Sorvillo resigned from St. Margaret Mary in February 2006 after a "sting-type operation" proved he was stealing, according to court documents. He remains a priest but has been stripped of his priestly "faculties," meaning he cannot say mass or wear a priest's vestments, according to an archdiocese spokeswoman.

He was taken into custody Friday after his sentencing, at which he chose not to speak.

Parishioner Dan McGuire, who attended the sentencing, said the "consensus" of a church group that investigated Sorvillo is that he stole closer to $500,000. "I'm glad it's over with," McGuire said. "He took the parishioners' money for all those years."