Some Googling of Peter Stravinskas

Contact Info

Father Peter M. J. Stravinskas

601 Buhler Court

Pine Beach, NJ 08741

email: fstravinskas [at] hotmail.com  (current as of Aug 2009)

Cornered Animal

Today on the Al Kresta show (Ave Maria Radio), Al Kresta interviewed Father Peter Stravinskas about Sister Sandra Schneiders.

• Kresta: "An influential American nun has called for 'non-violent resistance' against the Vatican investigation of womens' religious orders. In an email message to colleagues that has now been published by the National Catholic Reporter, Sister Sandra Schneiders says that the apostolic vistitation recently announced by the Vatican will be 'aggressive and dishonest.' And she has said that religious orders cannot prevent the Vatican inquiry. However, we can receive them politely and kindly for what they are: uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor -- not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn't ask, the question should be answered accordingly. Joining me right now to discuss this incident: Father Peter Stravinskas -- scholar, author, apologist, founder of the priestly society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, and Newman Press. Father, good to have you back."
• Fr. Stravinskas: "Good to be with you, Al."
• Kresta: "I don't know what to say. This is just -- first of all, it's rude, it's just plain rude. What is she talking about?"
• Fr. Stravinskas: "Well, I think in some sense, it's like when an animal is cornered. The response is beyond all imagining -- it's totally out of proportion. In fact sometimes you're even trying to, you know, heal the wounds on such a beast. And unfortunately, you know, the animal strikes back or bites or snarls. And some people are going to find the image I'm using rather unappealing, applied to women religious. Unfortunately, that's the only image that one could conjure up from that kind of immoderate, intemperate response."

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=318962

Fraud Accusations

Fr. Peter Stravinskas : April 18, 2005 : Nothing since then

Probe Concerns Parishioners : Omaha priest target of fraud investigation : WOWT

Allegations of fraud at a south Omaha church have parishioners up in arms. Police are investigating whether a priest at St. Anthony's Parish used church funds for personal business.

They were hoping for an explanation, but as Sunday Mass ended, several parishioners said they still have not been told what happened to $150,000 in church money. According to court documents, St. Anthony's church endowment had $82,000 two-and-a-half years ago, but is now all gone. The church, at 32nd and S streets, also had a mutual fund of more than $70,000, and it too is almost all gone. An FBI auditor said the monies from St. Anthony's accounts appeared to be used for personal expenses by the Rev. Peter Stravinskas. "We had great hopes with having him here, so we are highly hurt and disappointed," said parishioner Kristina Janyka.

Many came to Mass to hear Father Stravinskas' side of the story, but he did not attend. The parish bulletin reported that he's in Rome this week and it didn't mention anything about the allegations. "It is disappointing because you don't know what the fate of our church is," said Mary Antanelis, one of several parishioners who met in the social hall after Mass to talk about the parish's future. "When you have funds set aside in case of an emergency and those funds are no longer there and that's a surprise to us, yeah. It was kind of like your bank account was completely depleted."

Some parishioners are standing behind Father Stravinskas. "We are a little bit amazed to see what's happened over the past week or so," said John Davis, who said he and his wife sat down with the archbishop to talk about the accusations. "He told us at the end of that that there wasn't any basis to the accusations. It's something that we need to get settled and get behind us so we can all move forward."

Some still say until the police investigation is complete, they want to know where the money went. Father Stravinskas is not a priest of the Omaha Archdiocese, but out of Boise, Idaho. He is living at St. Anthony's with the permission of the chancery.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/1457487.html

For reasons that aren't clear to me, Fr. Stravinskas ceased being editor of the Catholic monthly, The Catholic Answer

in 2004.  It's quite a surprise to me that this story just stopped.

Now Newchurch Archbishop Elden Curtiss has told Stravinskas to get out. Stravinskas' handling of a south Omaha, Nebraska, parish's money is under police investigation after parishioners filed a report of a possible embezzlement. Detectives have told a judge that it appears St. Anthony parish money was spent on Stravinskas' personal expenses, including personal travel, mortgage payments, and credit cards. This is what is known as the sin of

conversion,

converting the money of others under one's control to one's own personal use. It is theft, pure and simple.

In a court filing last month, Omaha police that said two parish funds -- one worth $82,000 and the other worth $71,000 -- were nearly wiped out. Only $4,200 remained from the $153,000 total, detectives told a judge. But the Omaha World-Herald reports that those funds represented only part of the parish's savings. People knowledgeable about the situation said that the money taken from those accounts was only part of a larger amount spent from August 2002, when Stravinskas arrived, until March 2004, when the Archdiocese of Omaha froze St. Anthony parish funds.

Stravinskas leaves behind him a train wreck. Curtiss brought him to Omaha when a clerical group Stravinskas had founded there, the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, had been disbanded. Although a presbyter from the Newchurch diocese of Boise, Stravinskas hasn't worked there in 25 years. Curtiss has declined to be interviewed about the parish's finances or about how he knows Stravinskas or why he brought him to Omaha. Hmmm, skeletons in the closet, bishop? Stravinskas has been praised by the New Order as one of its best mouthpieces. Although jhe poses as a "traditionalist," Stravinskas is really a coy Novus Ordinarian, appearing on the Charismatic television network EWTN, formerly run by the now debilitated Mother Angelica.

In Omaha, Stravinskas registered a new organization, the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, as a Nebraska nonprofit corporation, based at the St. Anthony rectory. Now it appears that this organization may have been a ruse to launder money. Stravinskas hired a contractor to renovate parish buildings. at a cost of $126,000. Because the 3x4 metre rooms, in which nuns had once lived in convent, were too "cramped" for Stravinskas and company, Stravinskas had ordered built a three-room suite, with new flooring, a patio door, windows, a wine rack, and a deck. The diocese stopped the work on Good Friday 2004 after an archdiocese audit.

http://www.traditio.com/comment/com0506.htm

From first hand experience, I can attest to his lavish life-style. While in a local eatery, Father would be table-hopping and trying to get people to buy drinks and pay the tab for him. Can you imagine when I got the bill after offering to buy them a bottle of wine,his choice was the most expensive in the establishment! Without exaggeration or lying, his bill to me was over $300!! Can you believe a priest doing that? I can because it happened to me! Peter Stravinskas does not know what the Lord Jesus meant when he said: "If you want to be my followers, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me"! There is absolutely NO self-denial in this man's life! 39 posted on 05/11/2005 6:57:04 AM PDT by JohnnieAngel

http://blog.beliefnet.com/viamedia/2005/04/paging-fr-stravinskas_comments.html (various comments and quotes)

Also:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1385337/posts