A priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey is being investigated by authorities for using his position in the church to receive gifts from older, wealthy parishioners. Father Orozco was assigned to his parish, one of the wealthiest, just after his ordination in 2012 and has reportedly accepted over $250,000 in gifts. The suspicion arose due to allegations that many of the donations to him were made due to his representations of need but, in reality, many of the purported expenses were already covered by the diocese including car rental and insurance. In addition, he took a gift of $25,000 to buy a vacation home, which was never purchased, and solicited $150,000 from another parishioner to supposedly buy a house for his impoverished family in Columbia. As of now, no criminal charges have been filed and Father Orozco has vigorously defended his innocence on the basis that all gifts were voluntary.
See Mark Mueller, Priest took more than $250K from ‘grandmas’ at wealthy church, authorities say, NJ.com, October 1st, 2015.
