Archbishop Jason Gordon said the Roman Catholic Church has been "very vigilant" against money laundering and any unusual amounts of money coming to the church in light of the rush to changeover from the cotton $100 notes to the new polymer notes.
Although the church accepted the cotton notes up to midnight Mass on Old Year's night, Archbishop Gordon said sent out a note to the various parishes urging them to be very vigilant.
"I also sent a form for priests telling them if there are unusual amounts coming in, they needed to do a declaration of source of income and state it was an unusual amount that they received before trying to deposit it," he said yesterday following reports that a pastor tried to convert almost $29 million in old bills to new ones spread throughout the religious community.
Officers from the Financial Intelligence department of the T&T Police Service (TTPS) are investigating an incident in which Pastor Vinworth Dayal, head of the Third Exodus Assembly Church in Longdenville, attempted to change close to $29 million in old $100 bills on December 31.
Archbishop Gordon said measures were taken to ensure the Roman Catholic church is protected.
"In other words, although we were open to receiving the cotton $100, we are vigilant to ensure it was not in any way money laundering or compromising us. Receiving that kind of money would be strange by our standards of collection," he said.
He said he found it strange that "anybody collects $29 million in cash and is not using it for the ministry of the people and of God."
For those who believe a local pastor with the $29 million in cash is the norm, Gordon said it's not so, certainly not in the Roman Catholic Church.
"We don't have that kind of money lying around anywhere and whatever we receive is used for the people of God and for the ministry that we are involved in. From our perspective, $29 million in cash lying around would be something we have never had or had the experience of," the Archbishop said.
Seventh-Day Adventist Pastor Clive Dottin said Pastor Vinworth Dayal needs to give a "sound explanation" as to where the $29 million came from. Dottin said he was concerned that such incidents could leads to "an undermining of faith in religion."
While he did not want to pre-empt investigations into the matter, Dottin said the pastor needed to explain if the money was his personal funds or the funds of the church. If it is the church's money, the pastor needs to explain "why was the organisation so late in trying to change it. That is a lot of money."
"In an age where values and standards are falling and people's faith in religious leaders is also falling, it is important to give an explanation that is credible," Dottin said.
He is also concerned that the incidents makes church organisations "extremely vulnerable to the criminal mind who may feel there are other churches like that and it may be beneficial to them to explore the route of attacking churches."
"This is a development that should guide and inform religious leaders in terms of financial management," he said.
"People still look to religious organisations to be standard-bearers of integrity and we must not do, or appear to be doing anything that undermines their trust."
Checks with the police late yesterday revealed that investigations were continuing into the source of the funds Pastor Dayal tried to exchange. The money has been seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act and a house at Ocean Avenue in Gulf View, La Romaine, was searched as part of the ongoing probe.
Pastor Dayal is assisting the police in their investigations.