Raised the suspicion of some parishioners

The pastor of St. Anthony’s in downtown Joliet since 1993, LaPore was ordained in 1976 and also had served as associate pastor of St. Pius X in Lombard. He was placed on administrative leave from the Joliet diocese on Thursday, the day after church officials found out about the charges, said John Cullen, spokesman for the Diocese of Joliet.

LaPore, 56, of Oak Brook, first caught the attention of authorities in 1999 when about 30 parishioners complained to the diocese that they suspected their priest was using spaghetti dinner money to pay for a $537,000 home in Oak Brook, according to Joliet Police Chief David Gerdes. When a diocese investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, the parishioners, led by David Pretto, a church janitor and manager of the dinners, went to the police, Gerdes said.

Police investigators unearthed inconsistencies between church records and information from witnesses about how much money should be in the funds. But the case was handed over to the IRS and federal investigators began seizing church records in February 2000, Gerdes said. Police and federal prosecutors would not comment on whether any of the spaghetti dinner funds had been used to purchase LaPore’s home in the 200 block of Bridle Path Circle in Oak Brook.