By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2025 /
13:21 pm
A former parish employee in New Jersey has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from two parishes several months after she was accused of the thefts.
Former bookkeeper Melissa Rivera admitted to taking $292,728 from parishes in Washington Township and Pompton Plains, the Morris County prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
The two parishes were Our Lady of the Mountain and Our Lady of Good Counsel, both located in Morris County.
Rivera was charged with multiple counts of theft and forgery after being accused earlier this year of writing herself more than 100 checks from parish accounts between May 2018 and May 2024.
The state said it would recommend probation for Rivera, 60, though she would have to serve 364 days in the Morris County Correctional Center as a condition of that deal, the prosecutor’s office said.
Rivera will also be required to repay the parishes the money she stole.
She will be sentenced on July 11, the prosecutor’s office said. The county’s financial crimes unit helped prosecute the case.
Several Catholic officials have faced prosecution and jail time in recent years over thefts from their respective parishes.
Another bookkeeper at a Florida Catholic parish was sentenced in November 2024 to more than two years of federal prison after stealing nearly $900,000 from the church at which she managed financial records.
In July 2024, meanwhile, a priest in Missouri pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from a church at which he was pastor for nearly a decade.
And in May 2024 a former employee at a Tampa, Florida, Catholic church pleaded guilty to stealing more than three-quarters of a million dollars from the parish while employed there.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
