December 20, 2006

Former Finance Council of Polish Mission

San Diego, CA 92109

His Excellency Bishop R. Brom Catholic Diocese of San Diego

PO Box 85728

San Diego, CA 92186-5728

 

Your Excellency,

As a follow-up to the letter to Your Excellency dated 12/7/06 and due to newly developed and grave problems with Father Frydrych, we would like to present our position as the Finance Council to you:

The reasons for the Finance Council's concern are multiplet

  1. The rental of a large luxury townhouse in La Jolla by Father J. Frydrych, with a 2-car garage, and a monthly payment of $1875.00 (see enclosure 1 for a copy of the type of receipts Father Frydrych furnishes to the accountant to receive his check – a hand-scrawled note).
  2. Excessive and undocumented fumiture purchase for the amount of $18,324.00, paid for with the Chase credit card, providing neither credit card statements nor receipts (see encl. 2).
  3. Use and reimbursement of three (3) credit cards by Father Frydrych, without providinq receipts, for purchases. It is even unknown if the cards are Polish Mission cards or private cards of Father Frydrych (see encl. 3, 4 and 5).
  4. Transfer of his salary to the Socjety of Christ, done by Father Frydrych with the credit card (see encl. 6).

  5. Father Frydrych's cost of living, borne by the mission, is approximately $55,000.00 annually.
  6. Remodeling projects are regulady started by Father Frydrych without any consultation with parishioners regarding necessity, and without financial resources.

Due to the above concerns regarding unchecked and undocumented spending by Fr. Frydrych, and pressure from parishioners, on November 21, 2006, the President of Finance Council, Andrzej Szmidt, asked Father Frydrych to allow the Council the possibility of reviewing the receipts and invoices behind these purchases and expenditures, and taking inventory of fixed assets acquired. Father Frydrych bluntly refused all requests to review his back-up documentation.

On December 3, 2006, the Finance Council officially reiterated its request through a formal letter to Father Frydrych, of which a copy was sent to Your Excellency on December 7, 2006.

On December 10, 2006, Father Frydrych agreed to meet with the Finance Council. This meeting took place on December 17, 2006, at 10 a.m. Father Frydrych, using the letter received from the Diocese and quoting Your Excellency's stipulation regarding the Mission's accounting, dismissed/discharqed the Finance Council in its entirety on the spoi, making final end-of-year financial reconciliation impossible.

The Polish Catholic Mission is now left to function without a Finance Council, with Father Frydrych as the sole person in charge of any and all finances, never a sound financial management decision for any organization.


We, the dismissed Finance Council, would like to stress that the assumptions in the letter received from the Diocese seem to point to misleading information provided by Father Frydrych to the Diocese regarding the Mission's true issues, as outlined above.

On December 17, 2006, at the end of 11 a.m. mass, Father Frydrych - still under the sacred protection of the altar - tried to explain the financial problems of our Mission to the congregation. Using half-truths, he manipulated the facts to his own advantage, even lied that he was denied access to the accounts, and left the church. This is typical of Father Frydrych never to engage in any discussion at all, let alone positive, and parishioners never have a chance to voice their opinion, ask questions, or give an explanation. We have no voice at all in our own beloved Mission anymore. It has been taken away, and has become a totalitarian Mission.

We are truty sorry and deeply saddened that we have to escalate our problems to Your Excellency at this special time of year, but this situation has become critical and we are forced to do so. These problems started after Father Frydrych came to our Mission. We would like to remind Your Excellency that for many years, St. M. Kolbe Polish Mission has been a shining example of an ethnic mission, with hard­working, dedicated people, united in our vision of a stable, Polish church in San Diego.

Kind regards,

Andrzej Szmicit

President of the (recently dismissed) Finance Council

 

Members of the Dismissed Council:

 

Małgorzata Belza, Eva Czerwinski, Renata Ochabski

 

Maria Chimowicz, Iwona Strzałek, Jan K. Wegrzyn

cc: Fr. A. Maslejak, Sterling Heights, MI
Fr. T. Winnicki, Poznan, Poland