Dear Editor,
In August of 2022, I like all of you other Catholics received information on the changes coming to the Stewardship Program.
I was also hearing complaints from people in different parishes about the Diocese’s handling of church funds.
I wrote to Fr. Stephen Jones and he assured me it was all rumor and that there was no “money grab” in progress, but that was not entirely true.
I had already heard of the charges against Fr. Medina and I brought this issue up to Fr. Jones also.
I wondered what would cause a good priest like Fr. Medina to take $300,000 from St. Stanislaus Church in Wardsville? I just could not believe that he had taken that money for himself. There just had to be more to that story, a story that the Diocese did not want us to know.
Then April 26, 2023, an article appeared in the News Tribune on the results of a church tribunal against Fr. Medina. They found him guilty and the article made it sound as though he had embezzled that $300,000.
Among other conditions, Fr. Medina was fined $26,000 for the Diocese’s legal expenses.
After a couple of letters appeared in the News Tribune paper about the remodeling of the cathedral, I jumped at the opportunity to address that issue and support Fr. Medina.
What has ensued is a fire storm of controversy. I have had so many people who are so unhappy with the Catholic church per se and also what the Diocese is doing, contact me.
What I did find out about Fr. Medina was St. Stanislaus had a big project in mind and had already collected $350,000 when they went to the bishop to proceed. He would not approve the project and demanded the $350,000. St Stanislaus had no choice but to hand over the money.
With other projects in mind certain members of St. Stanislaus asked Fr. Medina to place money in an account that the bishop could not touch. This was the $300,000, and in all the years that it sat in a latent account Fr. Medina had not spent one red cent.
I do not know how many other small parishes had project money appropriated in the same way as St. Stan.
The Diocese of Jefferson City covers a lot of territory, from below the Lake, west of Sedalia, north to Kirksville, east to Hannibal and down to Cuba, lots of small rural churches who have not experienced a bishop like Bishop McKnight.
If this isn’t a “money grab”, I don’t know what is.
This weekend I received my first letter threat. They had posted ALL of my information on the web.
I guess this was a veiled attempt to intimadate except almost ALL of the information wasn’t true. Not intimidated!
Kristie Scheulen
Loose Creek
