In other words, priests have always been the people most trusted by believers, and priests need to listen to the confessions and repentance of the believers and give pastoral instructions on weekdays, and it is reasonable to have excellent character.
However, recently a highly respected priest in Italy was found to have been stealing money from the church for many years and doing all kinds of bad things!
Francesco Spagnesi, 40, a former medical student from the Diocese of Tuscany, Italy, dropped out of school at the age of 26 to join the clergy because he felt that "the way of serving people can bring him satisfaction and happiness", and he later became a priest of the Church of Annunciation Parish in the Prato region with excellent performance.
For years, the local population trusted the "brilliant, gentle and dedicated believer" priest, and was obedient to what he said on weekdays.
Therefore, whenever he expressed his desire to raise funds for some poor families, everyone would be very active in donating money.
However, what I never expected was that this godfather, who seemed to have been doing practical things for the believers, continued to steal money to enrich himself!
Not long ago, accountants in the Catholic District of Prato stumbled upon Spagnesi who had withdrawn more than 100,000 euros (756,000 yuan) from the church's bank account over the years!
Because the usual salary is not sent from this account, and there is no clear project that requires him to withdraw so much money to use, the accountant who is suspicious of this reports it to his superiors and the police.
When the local bishop learned of this, he immediately intervened and terminated his access to funds, and the police also began to investigate the whereabouts of the money, but no obvious progress was made, and he was extremely worried about it.
As a result, at this moment, Spagnesi's greed just helped the police, and because he was cut off from the "financial road" of obtaining funds from the parish account, he actually turned to the money in the fundraising tray and had a crooked thought!
After being found to have embezzled public funds and being investigated by the police, he dared to steal money in this way, and a priest would be so desperate for a large amount of cash, could it be a drug use?
With this suspicious direction in mind, the Prato regional police began to investigate the people around Spagnesi, and unexpectedly found out that one of his roommates, Alessio Regina, had recently imported as much as a liter of dating rape drug GHB from the Netherlands online!
This drug, commonly known as "liquid ecstasy", can make the user feel relaxed and euphoric after mixing with alcohol, thus reducing the pain of sexual behavior, but if the dosage is deviated, it is also likely to be fatal!
Relying on this hard-core clue, the police then found 200 members who had visited Spagnesi's home for a "drug sex party" in the past two years, 15 of whom admitted to having been invited to join the club from the gay network.
The evidence was collected, and the next step was naturally to arrest the main culprit in the case, and then Spagnesi was arrested by the police on September 14, and in the face of solid evidence, he confessed to the crime and confessed:
"I wanted to be a shepherd for the believers of the church, to lead them to the lord's path, only to fall into sin and decay.
I started taking drugs intermittently about 10 years ago, and then I met and fell in love with Regina, and the addiction made me feel that I would never have enough money, so I began to suffer.
It was the cocaine vortex that devoured me, I couldn't recognize myself anymore, the drugs made me betray the parishioners, made me lie, made me do something shameful! ”
In addition, Spagnesi confessed to having AIDS but never mentioned it to other sexual partners, which also put him on charges of concealing the situation and intending to cause serious harm to others, which can be punished with up to 6-12 years in prison.
After this matter was exposed, the believers who had trusted him were furious and expressed their desire to return the donations they had donated to the church through legal means, and the local procuratorate had received at least two related fraud lawsuits, and the total amount of parish public funds embezzled by him was as high as 300,000 euros (2.26 million yuan in contracts)!
In order to ask for everyone's forgiveness, Spagnesi, who has now been dismissed from his priesthood, promised to repay the money by "selling everything that belongs to him"...
Concealing infectious diseases, taking drugs, embezzling donations, and organizing sex parties are the last things a cleric should do, and he has almost done it all!
The godfather who was once trusted and admired turned out to be a hypocrite with a moral appearance, and such a lamentable incident caused countless netizens to feel extremely disappointed -
"Whenever a priest is caught stealing money from the parish or selling cocaine drugs, it's like a billion Catholics saying, 'Thank God!' ”
"Religious figures always take advantage of people who trust them!!! So I would never dare to have that faith! ”
"When did this commodity begin to violate the doctrine of the Church?"
"I'm sure he'll apply for a religious exemption later to escape jail time!"
"The Catholic Church loves money more than anything, including children! They have proven this time and time again! ”
"I felt like I saw a handcuffed pastor with church money and bank accounts stuffed with 'legitimate' dollar bills.
The wicked will never rest in peace! ”