Catholic News Agency reports (November 6, 2025) that Jeremy Lillig, former director of stewardship for the “Diocese” of Kansas City-St. Joseph, allegedly embezzled $150,000 from the Bright Futures Fund scholarship program. Federal prosecutors charge him with wire fraud involving hundreds of Visa gift cards over five years. “Bishop” James Johnston Jr. expressed shock at this “gross violation of trust,” claiming the “diocese” strengthened financial oversight after discovering the theft post-Lillig’s October 2023 departure. Lillig pleaded not guilty, with trial set for March 2026. The report emphasizes legal consequences (20 years prison, $250k fine) and Lillig’s 2015 recognition as a philanthropic “rising star.”
Naturalism Masquerading as Ecclesial Governance
The conciliar sect’s response to sacrilegious theft exemplifies its total surrender to naturalism. Johnston’s letter reduces the crime to a mere violation of institutional trust rather than sacrilege against God – a direct contravention of Pius XI’s teaching that “the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” (Quas Primas). Nowhere does this modernist “bishop” mention:
The eternal consequences for Lillig’s soul (cf. Luke 12:48), the requirement for sacramental confession, or the Church’s duty to seek restitution for stolen goods (Exodus 22:7).
This omission proves the post-conciliar sect operates as a secular NGO rather than the Mystical Body of Christ. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemned precisely this worldview: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). By deferring entirely to FBI investigations and federal prosecutors, the Kansas City “diocese” implicitly denies the Church’s divine authority to judge “those within” (1 Corinthians 5:12).
Theological Vacuum in Crisis Response
Johnston’s bureaucratic language—”full audit,” “strengthened security”—reveals the conciliar sect’s bankrupt ecclesiology. Contrast this with St. Pius X’s directive that pastors must “apply the remedy” against internal corruption through spiritual weapons: prayer, penance, and doctrinal clarity (Pascendi Dominici Gregis). The article’s focus on legal penalties ignores the Church’s duty to impose canonical penalties for theft of consecrated property (1917 CIC 2350).
Modernism’s fingerprints appear in the report’s moral equivalency: Lillig’s 2015 praise as a philanthropic “rising star” parallels the conciliar sect’s elevation of humanitarian works over sanctification of souls. As the Holy Office decreed in Lamentabili Sane (1907), such naturalism reduces religion to “a certain interpretation of religious facts” (Proposition 22)—here, treating stolen tuition funds as mere financial loss rather than theft from Christ’s little ones (Matthew 25:40).
Symptomatic of Conciliar Apostasy
This scandal erupts from the hermeneutic of rupture that replaced Catholic discipline with managerialism. Pre-Vatican II legislation mandated triple financial controls (1917 CIC 1523) to prevent such thefts—standards abandoned by post-conciliar “dioceses” chasing worldly efficiency. The Bright Futures Fund itself embodies the conciliar error condemned by Pius XI: treating education as mere human formation rather than “leading all to eternal happiness” (Quas Primas).
No mention is made of suspending Lillig’s possible “faculties,” investigating invalid sacramental administration, or warning faithful against receiving sacraments from corrupt ministers—omissions proving these structures lack Catholic ecclesial substance.
The report’s clinical tone about “gross violation of trust” echoes Bergoglio’s relativistic dictum that “corruption is a greater sin than sin”—a gnostic inversion denying peccatum mortale. True shepherds would emulate St. Nicholas striking Arius, not issue press releases about “strengthened oversight.”
Conclusion: Ecclesial Bankruptcy Revealed
This $150,000 theft symbolizes the conciliar sect’s spiritual bankruptcy. When “bishops” behave like corporate CEOs and crimes merit only legal—not canonical—response, they fulfill Pius X’s warning: “They want the Church to fall prey to the State” (Vehementer Nos). The absence of public excommunication, ordered restitution, or calls for communal penance proves these structures constitute what St. Robert Bellarmine called “ecclesia non ecclesia“—a non-Church. Only a return to integral Catholic discipline can restore true stewardship of Christ’s kingdom.
Source:
Prosecutors claim Kansas City diocesan staffer stole $150,000 from scholarship fund (catholicnewsagency.com)
Article date: 06.11.2025