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Greetings:
If there were ever a contest to determine the best example of the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, a church's Sunday collection would surely be a top contender.
As a retired federal law enforcement official with significant experience in the detection and investigation of financial irregularities, I have witnessed many cases in which otherwise good, God-fearing men and women succumbed to the temptation presented by easy access to public funds or property. And in virtually every case, the targeted funds or goods were less vulnerable than is the average church's Sunday collection.
The typical embezzler begins by telling him/herself they're only borrowing the funds to cover some legitimate personal or family need. As time goes by, however, and they realize how easy it is to borrow (in this case, from the Sunday collection), they begin to rationalize about how hard they work for little or (in the case of church volunteers) no pay, and how their church really owes it to them. As one can imagine, it's all downhill from there.
Judas was Christianity's first embezzler (JOHN 12.6) but today, nearly 2000 years later, an unknown but significant number of church embezzlements are ongoing at any given time. No one knows how many, because most church leaders, being unschooled in Security and having a deep-rooted aversion to its connotation of mistrust, have never recognized or accepted the absolute need for effective internal security to both deter and detect surreptitious theft.
The preservation and application of 19th Century methods in the 21st Century is or should be totally unacceptable. It may sound a bit melodramatic, but the long-term fiscal wellbeing of your church, parish or diocese may well rest in your hands. Consequently, before you decide whether or not to take advantage of this offer of a free download of our revenue protection and collection security guidelines and related forms, I urge you to read each of our pages.
Finally, I’m very pleased to report that, in early 2005, our Sunday collection guidelines were adopted by the Archdiocese of Chicago and are now a key element of their overall program to protect revenue throughout the Archdiocese. Kudos are definitely due Cardinal George and his staff for taking this vitally important step.
Most sincerely,
Michael W. Ryan |
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A Message from the Author |
