Paraguayan bishop ousted by pope scrutinized for spending
Paraguayan bishop ousted by pope scrutinized for spending
Jun 28, 3:20 AM EDT
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay (AP) -- Children awaiting surgery and women fleeing domestic violence never saw the $350,000 donated for their benefit. Then, there were the questionable property sales and the money for a cleaning business partially owned by a relative.
In the months since Pope Francis ousted the bishop of Paraguay's second-largest diocese, questions keep surfacing about the Rev. Rogelio Livieres Plano's management of church money.
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"The former bishop ran things like a mafia," said Carlos Pereira, a humanities professor at the Catholic University in Ciudad del Este. "How did we end up in debt? What happened to the diocese's properties, to all its assets?"
The diocese is $800,000 in debt, a considerable sum in one of South America's poorest countries. The arrears have come to light since Livieres Plano, a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement, was pushed out in September.
More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_PARAGUAY_OUSTED_BISHOP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-28-00-03-32
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141130059