Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of a high-ranking leader of St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon.
The resignation came a day after Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta pleaded not guilty to felony counts of embezzlement and money laundering stemming from allegations he stole more than $250,000 in church funds.
Shaleta, 69, faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted of all charges related to eight months of rent payments prosecutors say were paid in cash from a tenant of the church’s social hall to Shaleta himself.
During a recent Mass, Shaleta addressed allegations against him, saying he has never “abused any penny of the church money.”
“On the contrary, I have done my best to preserve and manage the donations of the church properly,” he said at the time.
Deputy District Attorney Joel Madero said Monday those rent payments were monthly installments of over $30,000 and the alleged missing payments totaled around $272,000.
The prosecutor said Shaleta moved money from a church bank account designed to assist the needy to the church’s operations account as a means of concealing the embezzlement.
When a financial adviser for the church flagged the discrepancies in the accounts, Shaleta “provided completely unreasonable tales of where that money was going,” such as giving the cash away to the needy, Madero said. The prosecutor added that Shaleta could not provide proof of who he gave the money to or when he provided the money, and later removed the financial adviser’s access to the accounts.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said its investigation into Shaleta began last August, when a church representative contacted investigators and “provided a statement and documents showing potential embezzlement from the church.”
An article published last month in The Pillar, a news agency that covers issues related to the Catholic Church, cited unnamed sources that claimed Shaleta may have misappropriated as much as $1 million from the church and purportedly frequented a Tijuana brothel.
The Vatican said in its daily bulletin on Tuesday that Leo had accepted Shaleta’s resignation under the code of canon law for Eastern Rite churches, which allows for the pope to agree if a bishop asks to step down.
Leo actually accepted the resignation when Shaleta presented it in February, but an announcement was not made until Tuesday, according to the Vatican embassy in Washington. The Holy See appears to have waited to announce the decision to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
Shaleta was arrested last week at San Diego International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight for Germany. Sources said a search of his luggage turned up nearly $10,000 in dollars and euros, just below the amount of cash that must be reported when traveling.
Defense attorney Sharon Appelbaum said her client was not a flight risk and the flight to Germany was part of a pre-planned trip. The attorney also emphasized Shaleta’s longstanding ties to the community and support from community members, which included dozens of people who attended Shaleta’s arraignment.
Shaleta was booked into county jail on $125,000 bail. Should Shaleta make bail, he will be monitored by GPS and must not access church funds. His passport has also been turned over to investigators.
Leo named Bishop Saad Hanna Sirop as a temporary administrator.
Shaleta was ordained a priest of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit in 1984. He was named to the San Diego branch of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2017.
