Ecclesiastical Embezzlement Exposes Conciliar Sect’s Moral Bankruptcy
EWTN News reports that a federal grand jury indicted James Owens, former treasurer of the Norbertine abbey of Santa Maria de la Vid near Albuquerque, for allegedly embezzling over $2 million between May 2022 and March 2023. The indictment claims Owens used his position to transfer funds into personal accounts, purchasing a home in Placitas while overseeing a retreat center expansion project. Charged with 32 counts including wire fraud and tax evasion, he faces up to 20 years imprisonment. The Norbertine community, established in 1995 on former Dominican property, describes itself as having an “everlasting presence” through its cemetery.
Financial Scandal as Symptom of Doctrinal Collapse
This case reveals the inherent corruption of religious structures operating outside the true Catholic Church. The conciliar sect’s abandonment of religiosorum disciplinam (discipline of religious life) has produced communities where:
“several of our brothers have their earthly resting places here in our communal cemetery”
replaces the supernatural goal of unio mystica cum Deo (mystical union with God). The article’s focus on financial crimes ignores the theological crime of reducing consecrated life to property management and retreat tourism. St. Pius X condemned such naturalism in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, warning that Modernism reduces religion to “a kind of yearning” divorced from objective truth (Encyclical Pascendi, 1907).
Canonical Anarchy in Post-Conciliar Communities
The indictment details how Owens exploited his dual roles as lawyer and treasurer – positions incompatible with authentic religious obedience under Codex Iuris Canonici (1917). Canon 592 §2 required religious superiors to submit financial reports annually to the Holy See, a safeguard dismantled by the conciliar sect’s rejection of papal authority. The 1917 Code’s Canon 2341 would have mandated excommunication for such theft of ecclesiastical property, whereas the modernist establishment pursues only civil penalties.
Development Projects Replace Spiritual Priorities
The embezzlement occurred during construction of “retreat facilities” – a telling priority for a community claiming religious status. Contrast this with St. John Vianney’s admonition: “The treasure of the Church is Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament, not real estate.” The Norbertines’ website boasts of “self-contained hermitages” while their treasurer bought a $2 million home, embodying the conciliar inversion of paupertas evangelica (evangelical poverty).
Juridical Naturalism Replaces Ecclesiastical Justice
The U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasizes prison sentences and tax evasion charges, reducing sacramental obligations to IRS compliance. This mirrors the conciliar sect’s adoption of secular governance models condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Proposition 39). True canon law would demand restitution ante omnia (before all else) under Canon 2345, but the article mentions only criminal penalties.
Omission of Spiritual Consequences
Nowhere does EWTN News mention:
- The sacramental invalidity of Owens’ profession (if made under the post-conciliar rite)
- The mortal sin of sacrilege committed against consecrated funds
- The canonical crime of pefuratio bonorum ecclesiasticorum (embezzlement of Church goods)
This silence confirms the conciliar sect’s loss of supernatural perspective, reducing the Church to a non-profit corporation. As Pius XI declared in Quas Primas, Christ must reign over societies lest they fall into chaos – a prophecy fulfilled in this scandal (Encyclical Quas Primas, 1925).
Conclusion: Rotten Fruit of Vatican II
This embezzlement scandal exemplifies the conciliar sect’s systemic failure. When religious abandon regula fidei (the rule of faith) for management theories, theft replaces stewardship. The Norbertines’ “everlasting presence” through cemetery plots parodies the true Church’s eternal mission: “Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). Until structures occupying the Vatican restore integral Catholic discipline, such debacles will multiply as God’s judgment upon apostate communities.
Source:
Federal grand jury indicts former treasurer for stealing more than $2 million from New Mexico abbey (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 29.01.2026