Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas?

In the Pallottine order, carryings-on over cash

WHY A SWEEPSTAKES? screamed the copy in the direct-mail ad. And answered: SIMPLY TO CALL ATTENTION IN A DRAMATIC WAY TO THE NEEDS OF THE POOR, HUNGRY AND SICK CHILDREN IN PALLOTTINE MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA, AUSTRALIA AND INDIA. Pictures of children, bellies bloated from hunger, encouraged compassion. Romantic renderings of the Dodge Coronet or Apache Eagle camper that a lucky giver might win in return for his contribution flavored compassion with a dash of greed. And why not? The Roman Catholic Pallottine Fathers, an international order founded in Italy in 1835, support 2,200 priests and brothers in 26 countries. Its U.S. fund raisers were tired of pleading for nickels and dimes, year after year. By applying hard-sell money-raising means to the world of charity they could swiftly rake in $30 million in capital, invest it, and then they and their missions might live beneficently and happily ever after.

The order had just the man for this Midas direct-mail touch--the Rev. Guide J. Carcich. Trieste-born, he had come to the U.S. as an immigrant and was a parish priest in Baltimore for seven years. He had a taste for worldly things, a born manager's grasp of commerce and a literary flair. IN THE HEART OF DARKNESS, another Carcich flyer began, MESSENGERS OF HOPE. His success was astounding--almost like the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

By 1970 the secretive Father Carcich was presiding over a huge Baltimore warehouse where modern machines printed, stuffed and mailed letters to computerized addressees--150 million letters in one 18-month period. And how the money rolled in: an estimated $56 million between 1970 and mid-1975, making the Pallottines second only to the United Fund among Maryland charities.

There was just one problem. The cash rolled in but it did not roll out. While the United Fund was sending 92% of its total receipts to member charitable agencies, the Pallottines were sending as little as 2.5% of their enormous income on to the missions. No one yet knows exactly where all the extra millions got to. But last week a Maryland grand jury charged Father Carcich with 60 criminal counts of misappropriation of funds and one count of obstruction of justice. An alleged coconspirator, the order's lay investment adviser, Donald Webster, will not go to trial: he shot himself to death in a flossy condominium in Ocean City a month ago.

Carcich's fiscal sins, known and alleged, ranged from what at the very least was foolish commercial speculation to the misuse of $1.4 million. He apparently lent money recklessly, without collateral. One chunk--$54,000--even went to ex-Governor Marvin Mandel to pay for his divorce in 1974. It has never been repaid. Carcich sank millions into shaky motel and real estate deals in Florida and five other states, and squandered $127,000 on cronies, a niece and a private secretary, while diverting $278,000 for his own personal use. Carcich is also accused of concealing bank records on other huge sums.

The priest has professed his innocence. His immediate superior in the order, the Very Rev. Domenick Grazia-dio, last week backed him up by saying: "I do not believe he committed any crime." Whatever the trial reveals, the storm over the Pallottine order's money-raising methods has been long breaking, and the order's leadership has been slow in trying to clear it up. More than two years ago the first signs of scandal were turned up by the Baltimore Sun, and the Archbishop of Baltimore stripped Carcich of priestly powers. But the Pallottines spirited Carcich away to a parish in Fairview, N.J., and other locations to keep him out of the hands of press and prosecution. Later, forced by Maryland's so-called Pallottine law to file a public accounting, the order reported that even in 1976, the bulk of direct-mail income went for expenses. Currently a three-man archdiocesan auditing board is at work on the Pallottine accounts. A report is expected within two weeks.

The Pallottine mess provides Americans with one more excuse not to give money to church agencies, even those that make full public accountings. The U.S. Congress is now considering a charity disclosure bill that would require groups seeking gifts by mail to offer basic data on where the money will go and how much of it is used for overhead. In the meantime, pressed by the Maryland attorney general, the Pallottines plan to liquidate all their hidden assets--including Carcich's bad real estate buys--and send whatever the sale brings to the missions.

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