There was nothing done illegally by Bennison, but canons were clearly violated in the way money was taken from different trust funds to pay for the general operating budget, said Bill Wood, President of the Standing Committee. "Procedures were not followed; there was clearly a violation of Canon Law."

"There is no cause for action in civil law, but there are signs that canon law was violated," said Wood.

What kind of sanctions are there to redress the conditions," asked one priest? Both the Standing Committee and Chancellor Francis Helminski are looking into what those sanctions may be. "The church canons were never to be the law of the land and they are full of loopholes," echoed Wood.

"Enforcement is a problem. You can bring charges to the House of Bishops, but we are not there, we are trying to straighten it out here," said Wood. "We are not here to issue a presentment (against Bishop Bennison) but to fix the problem. The chancellor wants to review everything."

Amanda Smoot, former member of the Standing Committee sought to distance herself from the Finance and Property Committee saying she agonized over her fiduciary responsibility on the Standing Committee. "The rules were changed while we were serving. We were angrily told that we were not allowed to ask any more questions about how money was being spent." The former chancellor backed that up, she said.

"How can we fulfill our fiduciary responsibility? It is my considered opinion that canon laws have been broken," she said.

One priest posed a hypothetical question as to whether there were grounds for a forensic audit. Don Faul, a representative from the audit firm said speculation was outside the scope of their work.

Questioned about Wapiti and the possibility of an exit strategy, Bill Powell said it was difficult to sell the land we don't own. "We spent $3 million to buy an option and $4 million to improve the land, but we don't own it. We have an option. If the diocese doesn't write a check for $4 million it can write a lesser check. We have spent over $7 million and we own nothing," a shocked clergy were told.

Bill Powell reiterated that while there are sufficient funds to cover the deficit spending for this fiscal year there are no guarantees that those funds would be available moving Forward. The audit revealed that Unrestricted Net Assets were in excess of $1 million sufficient to meet the $550,000 deficit budget approved at the Special Convention, but there were no guarantees for next year. St. Peter's in Broomhall is up for sale, clergy were told.

The auditors said there needed to be a "vast improvement" in the procedures regarding the management of the endowment funds, many of which were almost empty, and the use of endowment funds for the Diocesan budget.

Powell said that ministries would have to be cut back. The auditor said that among the trust funds that had been raided were the Carter fund which was now decimated, the Church House fund was also decimated; St. Andrews fund was now down to $500,000, The Jerusalem Fund which once boasted $9,000 was now down to $1,000. "Millions have been pulled out of trust funds to cover operating deficits," said Wood.

The chairman of the Audit Committee indicated that it was the opinion of the audit committee that the Management Letters should not be released. However VOL did obtain 2002-2004 management letters which can be seen here. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4145

The Special Audit Committee letter can be found at this link. http://www.diopastandingcommittee.org/special_audit_committee_letter.htm

The CBIZ Special Audit Report can be found at this link. http://www.diopastandingcommittee.org/CBIZ%20Report-1.pdf

END