It was more than 20 years ago when his name surfaced as he celebrated mass for the El Shaddai prayer group in Sydney. Then the charismatic group stopped having him for their weekly gatherings. Somehow, the Prayer Partners Foundation must have learned that Fr. Raul Del Prado did not have a celebret or proper endorsement from any Philippine bishop for him to legitimately say mass in Australia. If he did, the Filipino priest would have been assigned to a parish church. But he nevertheless continued to say mass in various places, including private homes. Not being affiliated with any diocese, it’s anybody’s guess where the money went.
Thus, he was exposed by Philippine Sentinel. The news reached a Sydney bishop and he went back to his home town in Alaminos, Pangasinan. He now serves as parish priest in Santiago Island in Bolinao, Pangasinan.
Now he is back in Sydney. He was reported to have said mass last April 24 at St. Margaret Mary Church in Merrylands NSW where he solicited funds and monthly pledges for his new presbytery — due for completion in 2018.
According to the Pledge Form he has distributed, any amount may be deposited to his personal account at St. George Bank.
Philippine Sentinel received a letter about Fr. del Prado from a certain Martin Hungerbuhler from Switzerland. He claimed to have met the priest in 2014. Martin wrote: “In my opinion there is now less proof about what is going on with the money in that parish. Since we got suspicious that there might be some problem with him and not liking to open an account and putting things in order we refused to submit any amount.”
Dear Mr. Crescini, I am aware of at least one other Filipino priest doing similar suspicious fund raising activities in Sydney. Perhaps, there are more. My recommendation is that you write an article in your newspaper admonishing your readers to require financial transparency from everyone, including priests -e.g.
– ensuring that there is proper process for handling donations before allowing any fund raising – the money is deposited to the bank account of the parish/project/charity-not in a personal account; receipt is issued to the donor for the donation; there is accounting by independent party of the total funds raised; the recipient of the funds issues a receipt or acknowledges the receipt of the total donation
– endorsement by the bishop/religious order
– check whether the cause being promoted is legitimate, justifies the travel and worthy of priority of the donation money among other worthy causes
– evaluate costs of overseas travel to raise donation against the amount needed to be raised;
– lifestyle check including signs of pre-occupation with non-pastoral matters
It is sad that some are turned off from the faith because of some unworthy priests. We should not be distracted though from remaining steadfast in our faith because of some bad apples.
Dear Mr. Crescini,
I am aware of at least one other Filipino priest doing similar suspicious fund raising activities in Sydney. Perhaps, there are more. My recommendation is that you write an article in your newspaper admonishing your readers to require financial transparency from everyone, including priests -e.g.
– ensuring that there is proper process for handling donations before allowing any fund raising – the money is deposited to the bank account of the parish/project/charity-not in a personal account; receipt is issued to the donor for the donation; there is accounting by independent party of the total funds raised; the recipient of the funds issues a receipt or acknowledges the receipt of the total donation
– endorsement by the bishop/religious order
– check whether the cause being promoted is legitimate, justifies the travel and worthy of priority of the donation money among other worthy causes
– evaluate costs of overseas travel to raise donation against the amount needed to be raised;
– lifestyle check including signs of pre-occupation with non-pastoral matters
It is sad that some are turned off from the faith because of some unworthy priests. We should not be distracted though from remaining steadfast in our faith because of some bad apples.
God bless
Dear Mr. Crescini,
I am aware of at least one other Filipino priest doing similar suspicious fund raising activities in Sydney. Perhaps, there are more. My recommendation is that you write an article in your newspaper admonishing your readers to require financial transparency from everyone, including priests -e.g.
– ensuring that there is proper process for handling donations before allowing any fund raising – the money is deposited to the bank account of the parish/project/charity-not in a personal account; receipt is issued to the donor for the donation; there is accounting by independent party of the total funds raised; the recipient of the funds issues a receipt or acknowledges the receipt of the total donation
– endorsement by the bishop/religious order
– check whether the cause being promoted is legitimate, justifies the travel and worthy of priority of the donation money among other worthy causes
– evaluate costs of overseas travel to raise donation against the amount needed to be raised;
– lifestyle check including signs of pre-occupation with non-pastoral matters
It is sad that some are turned off from the faith because of some unworthy priests. We should not be distracted though from remaining steadfast in our faith because of some bad apples.
God bless
Lisa,
Please send me a private email and name who is this priest.
His name will NOT be published unless you agree for me to do so.
Dino