Madoff and the Redemptorists
February 13, 2009, 10:46 am
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
Here is an article about how the Redemptorists may have suffered significantly from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. I wonder how many other religious institutions have been affected.
“A “significant” amount of money was invested starting in 1992, said Marion Lunt, a spokeswoman for the Redemptorist fathers in the U.S. The money was used to fund scholarships for inner-city children, care for elderly priests and other charitable causes, she said. Lunt declined to provide further financial details.”
Further financial details? The Redemptorist take a vow of poverty as do the other Religious Orders and Congregations. Now the vow is intact because the money is used “collectively” or something like that, and not personally. It would be nice if they could use that money retroactively so they could furnish Jesus with a place to stay. The poverty of religious orders has been for a long time more ceremony than reality. They certainly live better than 75% of the world. Many prospects have actually been told that they are entering royalty when they enter a religious order. (Not spiritual royalty)
Financial transparency is still very rare in dioceses as well as religious orders.
I know that the Redemptorists have funded some wonderful educational opportunities for their inner city parishioners. They sent catechists for training. They have flourishing RCIA teams, because the people could get to training. They equipped people for inner city ministries to the poor, with counseling on immigration law, etc. I understood it was all from a fund and not from the parish coffers. Where did the fund come from originally? Wealthy donors. It never came from the poor. I do understand why organizations want to get a return on their investments — to support their charitable works and ministries. It’s stewardship, but alas, somebody was fooled.
Here’s the question. Madoff investors had a high return on their investment. If the order was spending the dividends since 1992, is it possible they got as much as they put in? The devil is truly in the details.