Month: October 2020

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Priest in NJ, former prep school chaplain, charged with endangering students

October 5, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

CNA Staff, Oct 5, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Fr. Salvatore DiStefano, a former boys’ prep school chaplain in New Jersey, was charged Thursday with use of children to commit a crime, and child endangerment.

“I want to recognize Attorney General Grewal’s Clergy Abuse Task Force and our Special Victims Unit for exhaustively and professionally investigating this case. The conduct unearthed by our investigative team represents an egregious and total betrayal of trust by a person who was supposed to be helping young men, not hurting them; conduct that might have gone unchecked but for their efforts,” acting Union County prosecutor Lyndsay Ruotolo said Oct. 1.

Fr. DiStefano, 61, was chaplain of Oratory Preparatory School in Summit, N.J., 13 miles west of Newark, until he was suspended in January during the investigation. He had been chaplain at the school since at least 2012.

He was charged with five counts of second-degree use of a juvenile to commit a crime and six counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

The prosecutor’s office said his behavior had threatened the welfare of six students at Oratory Prep.

Fr. DiStefano’s “conduct as the leader of an official school club of about 30 hand-picked Oratory Prep students, known as the ‘Knights of Malta,’” had been investigated by the Special Victims Unit, according to the prosecutor’s office statement.

“For instance, the investigation revealed that DiStefano would frequently attempt to speak with the students about sex and instructed a student to masturbate in order to relieve stress. He also allegedly made repeated attempts to entice a student to accompany him away from the school alone and took steps to conceal that activity, for instance telling the student to leave his cell phone at school so that his true location would be hidden from his parents when he met with him off-campus.”

The investigation also found that the priest texted and called the club members routinely, and at various times in late 2019 he would let them consume cannabis edibles in his office, and allegedly bought THC cartridges for them, as well as providing them money to do so.

Fr. DiStefano allegedly encouraged students to bully others, intending “to maintain his control over the group.”

“At one point, according to the investigation, DiStefano attempted to convince multiple students to harass and otherwise intimidate a former Knights of Malta member who had been dismissed from the club, ordering them to make the victim’s daily life so difficult that he would quit school.”

For example, he allegedly convinced one student to spread rumours about another on social media, and had them plan a rival party so that no one would attend one being hosted by the former Knights of Malta member.

Prosecutors said that “when students or others expressed concerns about his conduct to DiStefano, he also allegedly took steps to cover up his activities, such as telling one victim to delete all of the text messages between them from his phone.”

Both the Archdiocese of Newark and Oratory Prep cooperated with prosecutors in their investigation.

The investigation was part of the effort of the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force, which was announced in September 2018 to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clerics in New Jersey.

The Union County prosecutor’s office said Fr. DiStefano is the fourth priest to have been charged in a criminal case filed by the task force.

The priest’s lawyer, Vincent J. Sanzone Jr., told The Star-Ledger that Fr. DiStefano is innocent of the charges, and noted, “he’s not charged with a sexual crime … it’s about students bullying each other, and it got out of control.”

When Fr. DiStefano was placed on leave amid the investigation in late Janury, NJ.com reported that a Newark archdiocese spokeswoman said that the archdiocese “takes very seriously any and all credible complaints of sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy, religious, lay staff and volunteers of the Archdiocese.”

According to NJ.com, Fr. DiStefano was an assistant principal in the New York City Public Schools and was a New York City police officer before being ordained a priest.

Prosecutors said the priest was recently residing at Our Lady of Peace parish in New Providence, which is adjacent to Summit.


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No Picture
News Briefs

Enrico Crasso defends management of Vatican investments

October 5, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Rome Newsroom, Oct 5, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Enrico Crasso, a longtime investment manager for the Vatican, has defended his stewardship of Church funds controlled by the Secretariat of State, saying investement he made were “no secret.” 

Crasso, who worked with the Vatican starting in 1993, was named in reports last month alleging that Cardinal Angelo Becciu used millions of euros of Vatican charity funds in speculative and risky investments, including “loans” for projects owned and operated by Becciu’s brothers. 

In an Oct. 4 interview with Corriere della Sera, Crasso denied managing “confidential” accounts for Becciu’s family.

On Sept. 24, Becciu was asked by Pope Francis to resign from his Vatican job and from the rights of cardinals following the report. In a press conference, the cardinal distanced himself from Crasso, saying he did not follow his actions “step by step.”

According to Becciu, Crasso would inform him of what investments he was making, “but it’s not that he was telling me the ramifications of all these investments.”

Crasso appeared to corroborate Becciu, saying they met only 5-6 times since 2012. He claimed that Becciu also never applied “pressure” about what investments to make.

Crasso is the manager of the Centurion Global Fund, in which the Holy See is the principal investor. The fund is connected to several institutions linked to allegations and investigations of money laundering, a CNA investigation found.

The fund also registered a loss of some 4.6% in 2018, while at the same time incurring management fees of roughly 2 million euros, raising questions about the prudential use of Vatican resources.

According to Crasso, “the Secretariat [of State] has always earned from our management.” 

The Centurion Global Fund first made headlines in December 2019 for its use of Vatican assets under its management to invest in Hollywood films, real estate, and utilities, including investments in movies like “Men in Black International” and the Elton John biopic “Rocketman.”

Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra reported that Centurion had raised around 70 million euro in cash, and that the Holy See’s Secretariat of State was the source of at least two-thirds of the fund’s assets.

Crasso said Oct. 4 that after Il Corriere’s Dec. 2019 article, he was told “the Holy Father had given instructions to liquidate the fund. And now we are closing it.”

In conflict with Becciu’s claim that he didn’t know what Crasso was doing, Crasso said “Centurion was known in the Secretariat [of State]” and that Vatican officials “knew very well” which investments were being made. 

Asked how he made his decisions about how to invest Vatican money, Crasso said the secretariat pointed out some investments to him directly, such as shares in the English Eos fund, who were “friends of Monsignor Alberto Perlasca.”

Perlasca is Becciu’s former chief deputy at the Secretariat of State. In February, his home and office were raided by investigators over his participation in the Vatican’s investment of hundreds of millions of euros with the Italian financier Raffaele Mincione. 

Crasso indicated that on at least one occasion he informed Perlasca that a desired investment was too risky and advised making an investment of only six million euros instead of 30 million, which they did.

Vatican investments through Centurion have also been reported to include funds from the Peter’s Pence collection, intended to support charitable works and the ministry of the Holy See.

Crasso confirmed that “the funds of Peter’s Pence were managed by banks, including hedge funds. Everyone knew it,” he said. “Now, however, the Vatican’s auditor general argues that these funds were tied to charitable works. But they never told the banks!”


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