Nun under house arrest for theft of precious votive offerings from various churches, bishop ‘saddened’

The bishop of Ariano Irpino (Avellino), Sergio Melillo, who authored in recent months the denunciation that led yesterday to house arrest in San Cesareo, in the province of Rome, in the residence of the community of San Francesco Saverio, says he is “deeply saddened” by Sister Paola, born Maria Rosa Schiavo, the superior of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit accused of multi-aggravated theft for having stolen and sold precious votive offerings from the churches of the diocese. It was Bishop Melillo himself who reported the thefts in three parishes of Ariano Irpino and in the churches of Castel Baronia, San Sossio Baronia, Bonito, Savignano Irpino, Carife.

The affair has caused shock and pain in the diocesan community. The nun, who also took care of the management of the bishop’s residence, thanks to the viability that came with her position, systematically took possession of the most precious votive offerings and sold them to traders. Much of the gold, worth 80 thousand euros, would then have been melted down, and the money collected by the nun transferred to a foreign account. Recovered by the carabinieri, in the investigations coordinated by the Benevento Prosecutor’s Office, led by Aldo Policastro, a small gold ingot resulting from the melting, which was seized from the shop of a merchant in the area and some jewels and necklaces that the nun kept both in her residence in Ariano Irpino and that of San Cesareo, where she had been transferred after the start of the investigations. (HANDLE).