Monday, July 23, 2007
SORDID STORY OF A CHICAGO PRIEST
The Rev. Mark Sorvillo loved taking his parish's money and spending it on himself. Trips to Rome, Venice, Paris. And $900 meals at New York restaurants.
In 1999, Sorvillo found someone else to lavish his parishioners' collection-plate donations on -- a male stripper.
Sorvillo -- who pleaded guilty Friday to stealing nearly $200,000 from St. Margaret Mary parish on the North Side -- gave cars, plane tickets and thousands of dollars in cash to James Sosnicki, a married Louisville man who stripped frequently at gay clubs in Chicago, law enforcement sources said.
Reached in Louisville, Sosnicki told the Chicago Sun-Times he paid Sorvillo back -- and said their relationship was never sexual.
"He was like a big uncle to me," Sosnicki, 30, said Thursday. "If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be living in a cardboard box right now."
Sorvillo's lawyer, Brian Collins, declined to comment.
Sorvillo resigned from St. Margaret Mary in February 2006 after parishioners caught him stealing from the collection bags.
Read the rest...
Hat tip to NOR.
