There’s nothing wrong with booking stays in hotels.
There’s nothing wrong with a bonus for work well done.
There’s nothing wrong with taking flying lessons.
There’s nothing wrong with any of those items — as long as you are able to pay for them with your own money.
Monsignor Kurt Kemo, the former vicar general of the Diocese of Steubenville, was reminded of that in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court Wednesday, when he admitted to diverting nearly $300,000 in diocesan funds for his own use, including the things mentioned above.
And, while stealing from his employer was bad enough, the money Kemo helped to divert had been donated to the church in good faith by its parishioners, including funds intended for various projects in the diocese and for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, an organization that serves missionaries and the poorest of the poor around the world. It also led to others who depended on the diocese for employment to lose their jobs and to austerity measures to be implemented.