A Polish priest with a penchant for a bet has slipped out of his parish in the central Polish town of Lowicz, taking with him the collection box, local press reports said on Thursday.
The faithful at the Holy Spirit parish in Lowicz were a bit bemused at not seeing Father Franciszek Augustynski since mid-May, and decided to investigate, the daily Dziennik Lodzki newspaper reported.
They found that not only was the vicar gone, but so too was the zloty equivalent of several thousand dollars, which the 11 000 parishioners had dutifully donated to a fund to renovate their church.
According to the newspaper, Father Augustynski was a bit of a gambler and has probably sought refuge with friends in Britain from his mounting debts.
But no formal complaint has been lodged over their wayward preacher.
“We haven’t alerted the police. This is an internal affair,” said Father Stanislaw Plichta, secretary of the Lowicz diocese, which is based in a very devout part of overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Poland. — AFP