Rwanda: Pastor Dragged to Police Over Funds

[Source]:

A Kenyan pastor running an NGO in the country faces allegations of embezzling funds, Sunday Times has learnt. Pastor Joseph Anyienga faces the allegations alongside the General Manager of the organization Sisters of Rwanda one Margaret Karara. The organization has been engaged in efforts tot help former prostitutes in Kigali gain income generating skills.

Sisters of Rwanda has premises in Kimironko, where it trains former sex workers different vocational skills like making beads and candles.

The allegations against the two were made by their partner of over two years in the organization Jared Miller. He alleges that they have been systematically embezzling funds and other donations given by the sponsors of the organization.

Miller from the USA but working with Sisters Of Rwanda told Sunday Times that he carried out an investigation after being tipped off by some of the would be beneficiaries of the organization.

“I did an investigation and found out that the Pastor and our General Manager have been stealing from us and embezzling money for almost a year. I had no idea” said Miller.

Miller told Sunday Times that the case was forwarded to police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police is doing a full investigation.

“They have been accepting funds under our name for a long time but they have been keeping the money”, added Miller.

When we got in touch with Pastor Anyienga, by phone, he said that the case is before CID and that he was not ready to talk about the allegations that are now before the police.

He said that he is the founder of the organization and that he knows that Miller, being the one who brought up the allegations. has his own side he wants to put forward.

Contacted for comment, Karara told Sunday Times by phone that she was not ready to speak about the allegations saying that the police investigations will help to determine what happened.

Anyienga and Karara later walked into the offices of The New Times yesterday and shed more light on the allegations leveled against them.

Anyienga said that Miller made the allegations to police after the Board of the NGO had summoned him to give a financial report for the year 2007/2008.

He explained that they wanted Miller to explain why he published a magazine in the US, alleging that there was sex slavery in Rwanda without getting permission from the management.

Anyienga further said that the board was going to sit on August 22nd to get an explanation from Miller and he refused to turn up.

Instead according to the Pastor, Miller went to police on 25th claiming that Ayienga and Karara had embezzled funds. The pastor concluded that justice should take its course and as a man of God he believes the truth will be revealed.

The police spokesman Marcel Higiro confirmed that CID had received a complaint from Miller, alleging that there was embezzlement and mismanagement in the organization.

“CID has received a complaint saying that there is embezzlement and mismanagement in the organization”. Higiro said.

He added “So far we have got that complaint and we have started investigations and we are at the level of finding out what happened”.

Lawsuit: Priest’s therapist molested boy

[Source] August 31, 2008:

BURLINGTON, Vt.—The church therapist who treated a Vermont Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting boys later became the target of a Massachusetts lawsuit alleging he, too, engaged in sex acts with a boy for nine years, beginning when the boy was 9.

The Rev. Thomas Kane of Whitinsville, Mass., was executive director of the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville. That’s where the Diocese of Burlington sent the Rev. Edward Paquette to be treated after learning Paquette had molested two boys in Rutland.

Court papers in Vermont and Massachusetts indicate the dates of Kane’s alleged abuse of the Uxbridge, Mass., boy — 1968 to 1977 — coincide with the period from 1974 to 1978 that Paquette was being treated, for much of the time via monthly visits, at the House of Affirmation.

There’s no evidence that officials in the Vermont diocese, including then-Bishop John Marshall, were aware of Kane’s alleged sexual misconduct during the period he was providing therapy to Paquette.

Kane’s alleged victim filed suit in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston in 1993; the case settled out of court two years later for $42,500. The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Nineteen lawsuits have been filed in Vermont alleging that Paquette molested boys while serving as a priest in Burlington, Montpelier and Rutland in the 1970s. Four have ended with jury verdicts or been settled out of court and 15 are pending.

Church records in Vermont show that Marshall knew Paquette had a history of molesting boys at parishes in Massachusetts and Indiana, but allowed him to join the Vermont diocese after being told by a church psychiatrist in Indiana that Paquette’s problem had been cured.

Kane also provided a positive review of Paquette’s progress in therapy. “It is my opinion that Father Paquette should return as soon as possible to a parish setting and observe the signals of caution which we have discussed,” Kane wrote to Marshall on Nov. 6., 1974.

Another exchange of letters between Kane and Marshall in 1978 showed new allegations of sexual misconduct were being directed at Paquette.

Marshall wrote to Kane that he was considering leaving Paquette in his role as parish priest at Christ the King Church in Burlington despite the new allegations.

“Despite the demands of two sets of irate parents that ‘something be done about this,’ Father Paquette’s pastor and I are determined to take the risk of leaving him in his present assignment,” Marshall wrote to Kane on April 4, 1978.

“Our thinking is that, knowing the awareness of others concerning his problem, Father Paquette will have reason for ‘self control’,” the bishop added. “Do you agree with this thinking?”

Kane replied, “I do agree with your thinking. I do not believe it is ‘too risky’ to leave Father Paquette in his present assignment but, of course, can make no predictions.”

Later that month, increased pressure from parents in the parish forced Marshall to change his mind. He wrote to Kane, “The situation had become so explosive that I had no other recourse but to ask Father Paquette to leave the parish immediately.”

No telephone listing could be found Sunday for Edward Paquette at his last known address in Westfield, Mass. A message left at the headquarters of the Diocese of Worcester, which includes Whitinsville, was not immediately returned Sunday. News reports from 2002 placed Kane in Mexico.