Pope accepts resignation of Chaldean bishop who was arrested for alleged financial crimes
Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of the San Diego Chaldean Catholic bishop, a decision announced Tuesday by the Vatican, after the bishop was arrested on embezzlement charges.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said last week it had arrested Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta on March 5 at San Diego International Airport as he tried to leave the country. The office said it acted after someone from Shaleta’s church provided a statement and documentation “showing potential embezzlement from the church.”
Shaleta was being held on $125,000 bail on eight counts of embezzlement, money laundering and aggravated white collar crime, the statement said. On Monday, the bishop pleaded not guilty to the 15 felony counts.
There was no immediate reply to an email sent to Shaleta’s parish, St. Peter Chaldean Church, seeking comment and contact information for his attorney.
The Vatican said in its daily bulletin on Tuesday that Leo had accepted Sheleta’s resignation under the code of canon law for Eastern Rite churches that allows for the pope to agree if a bishop asks to step down.
Continuing Coverage:
Leo actually accepted the resignation when Shaleta presented it in February, but an announcement was not made until Tuesday, according to the Vatican embassy in Washington. The Holy See appears to have waited to announce the decision to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
Leo named Bishop Saad Hanna Sirop as a temporary administrator.
Shaleta, 69, was ordained a priest of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit in 1984. He was named to the San Diego branch of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2017.
The allegations
The allegations against Shaleta are connected to eight months of rent payments, prosecutors say, which were paid in cash from a tenant of the church’s social hall to Shaleta himself. Madero said Monday that those rent payments were monthly installments of over $30,000 and the alleged missing payments totaled around $272,000.
The prosecutor said Shaleta moved money from a church bank account designed to assist the needy to the church’s operations account as a means of concealing the embezzlement. When a financial adviser for the church flagged the discrepancies in the accounts, Shaleta “provided completely unreasonable tales of where that money was going,” such as giving the cash away to the needy, Madero said.
The prosecutor said Shaleta could not provide proof of who he gave the money to or when he provided the money, and later removed the financial adviser’s access to the accounts.
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Deputies are asking anybody with information about the case to contact them at (858) 285-6111. Tips can also be called in anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
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