Gambling Addicted Nun Gets 90 Days in Jail for Stealing $128K from Churches to Spend at Casinos

By Staff in Uncategorized · July 11, 2013 

By Nigel Boys

 

A Catholic Church nun, who has a gambling addiction, was sentenced to 90 days in jail on Monday for stealing $128,000 from two churches in Holley and Kendall parishes New York.

Charged with grand larceny, Sister Mary Anne Rapp, 68, pleaded guilty when she appeared in Orleans County Court last April, according to Associated Press reports.

Rapp has also been ordered to pay back the money and serve 100 hours of community service.

It is believed that between 2006 and 2011, Rapp took the money that was found to be missing during an audit on St. Mary’s Church in Holley and St. Mark’s Church in Kendall last year.

Joe Cardone, district attorney for Orleans County, said that he was sure Rapp had helped many people during her years as a nun but that doesn’t change the fact that she stole the money and should be punished for it.

Cardone went on to say “This involves her over a long period of time taking money from the collection plate from the church on a weekly basis. Lying to parishioners. Diverting checks that were payable to the church and also lying to the church and eventually investigators because she didn’t admit this immediately.”

A statement, released on Monday by Sister Edith Wyss and the provincial minister of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance, in Lewiston, New York, where Sister Mary Anne was a member, said that she had shown a positive approach to recovering from her gambling addiction.

The statement continued that even though Rapp had received enormous support from her friends, parishioners and her religious community, the judge decided that her crime warranted that she spent time in jail.

Wyss said that the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance felt sorry for the two churches that had suffered due to the actions of Sister Mary Anne. She added that they would continue to help and support Sister Mary Anne during her time of recovery and her penance.

Investigators said that Rapp, who has been a nun for 50 years, told them that she stole the money to feed a gambling addiction and spent all the money at western New York casinos.