Churches Raise $500,000 for Gambling Addict; Said he Had Cancer

there were someone who needed forgiveness and healing of his soul, it would be this guy.

cranky- I have to agree with you there. Not only did he scam people out of money, he scammed his own church + others out of a half-million dollars AND had people all over worried about him and his bout with cancer.

I don´t know how many people here has been related to, friends with, aquaintances of someone who has had cancer and went through treatment for it. Those that know and especially those that had to deal with it day in and day out knows how draining everything is. To hold their hair when they are getting sick and to have clumps of it falling out, trying to help sooth the areas that are burned from treatment and the worry that they won´t get through it ok and you won´t be able to be strong enough to make it through on others.

So many people felt for this man on all sorts of levels, remembering their own pain, crying tears of sadness for this douche and all the time he was a scammer who had a thing for the slots(or whatever was his game)and screw who gets hurt or in the way.

"And he welcomed Marychurch back to the church.
"He did a lot of administration and got things together at the church ready for mass".

You have GOT to be kidding me! I have a feeling that the parishoners surely won´t feel that way. Did anyone else see that tiny church he attended? That wouldn´t be the mud room or the coat room in most Catholic churches up here.

He is a creep and his fellow parishioners hopefully won´t be fooled again.

this disqualifies you from being a trustworthy person.

everyone deserves a second chance. :p

have no idea of how to get out of the gambling addiction, i don´t know at all wether it´s possible to get out of it wh i´m in that for long, it is like as if i´d pour water into the river.

I am from the parish concerned and have known this man for years. Several parishioners had major concerns about whether his story was true, but they were belittled and ignored by priests who accused them of rumour-mongering and said it would be their fault if such a dedicated parishioner were to give up his cancer fight and die.

He managed to obtain a ´loan´ from a man who´d gotten a payout for childhood sexual abuse - he got about $10,000 of a $15,000 payout. Of course the money was never seen again.

He would fly down to Christchurch in the South Island for ´treatment´ and arrange for a local to drop him off and pick him up later at the hospital - he´d then immediately get a taxi from the hospital to the casino and back again later with noone the wiser.

The $500,000 total is unconfirmed, but he has been charged now with around $300,000 with more forthcoming. The churches didn´t give him much themselves - it was individual people who were guilted into loaning out their life savings in some cases.

Words cannot convey how revolted the parish is about this. And worst of all? I work in Auckland not far from the District Court, and what did I see at lunchtime today? This guy on the way to Auckland Skycity Casino. So of course he is still a slave to the slots.

Maybe a good few years in prison will get his head right, or protect a few more vulnerable people at least.

Thanks for stopping here to share that, very interesting.

There´s a movie coming out soon called "For Christ´s Sake" and involves a man who asks his brother, a priest, for church money to treat his cancer, but in reality uses it not to gamble, but to finance a porn movie that his brother is the star of, without him knowing somehow.

There are single parent families with children that are going homeless.

I´m an advocate for Gerard Marychurch when you saw Gerard last Friday he had jsut left his Lawyers office and was heading to an appointment at the office of Sky City Host Responsiblity. Mr marychurch has a self ban from Sky City and local gambling venues which were put in place some weeks ago and at present he has reached 41 days of no gambling. Over the past weeks Mr Marychurch has had some very positive and caring support from a large number of the Parishioners from Saints Fancis and Therese. Mr Marychurch is under going treatment for problem gambling and has shown a lot of remorse for those he has hurt. This includes the people that he has been in contact with and expressed his sincere apologies. Please remember that Mr Marychurch has faced upto his situation and will continue to do so.

Toboy

Toboy: glad to hear I was mistaken, and 41 days free of gambling is a start at least. I do not have an opinion either way on the man´s level of remorse - I guess it´s up to the victims to decide whether it is proportionate to the suffering inflicted upon them.

Thanks for leaving your note in any event.

Did anyone hear the radio apology from the man who had suffered sexual abuse who had claimed that Mr Marychurch had taken a large sum of money from him. Well it was on the national station on Friday and the man said that no money was given to Mr Marychurch and he wanted to give his apology. It was also said that Mr Marychurch had attended several appointments in Dunedin for treatment but the other 2 trips were fictional as an advocate for Mr Marychurch this is correct according to the police summary and reciepts/medical record. I don´t agree with what Mr Marychurch did after his health improved but I understand after attending a problem gambling treatment
session with Mr Marychurch how they end up in situations where their lives become out of control to the point where they can´t understand what the difference is between fictional and reality. Very sad situation but I will continue to support him but most of it is up to him and as Hone said at least he has made a start.

The man in question (sexual abuse victim) had gone to the papers about it previously and apparently the story checked out - so I wonder under what circumstances he withdrew and apologised on National Radio?

What we know is that the Man (abuse victim)had to produce Bank Statements for the period to the Police and all the money was accounted for including a repayment of $ 5000 and money that he gave to his family in hamilton which has now been documented. Thats all I know at this present time.