Pope Accepts Resignation Of El Cajon Bishop Charged With Embezzlement

EL CAJON, CA — Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta of St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, who is facing criminal charges of embezzlement and money laundering, it was announced Tuesday.

The announcement was made in the Vatican's daily bulletin issued Tuesday morning, one day after Shaleta pleaded not guilty in an El Cajon courtroom to 16 felony counts.

Shaleta, 69, had offered his resignation last month when the allegations surfaced and the Associated Press reported that Leo had already accepted the resignation, but it was not publicly announced in order to not interfere with the police investigation.

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."

A prosecutor said Monday that the charges concerned around $272,000 in rent payments from a tenant of the church's social hall that allegedly was paid in cash to Shaleta, after which the money "vanished."

The rent payments were previously paid by check, but Deputy District Attorney Joel Madero said that at some point, Shaleta instructed the money be paid in cash to his secretary. Shaleta then allegedly moved money from a church bank account designed to assist the needy to the church's operations account as a means of concealing the alleged embezzlement.

When a financial adviser for the church flagged discrepancies in the church's bank accounts, Shaleta "provided completely unreasonable tales of where that money was going," such as giving the cash away to the needy, Madero said.

Shaleta faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted of all charges. He was being held on $125,000 bail following his arrest last week at San Diego International Airport, but county jail records indicated Tuesday that he was no longer in custody.

— City News Service