By Dan Horn
Enquirer staff writer

A former pastor at the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati mismanaged $271,000 in a church account and spent at least some of that money on personal expenses, archdiocese officials said Sunday.

The announcement ended a year-long church investigation into how the Rev. Thomas Axe spent money from a discretionary account under his control at Good Shepherd parish in Montgomery. A criminal investigation also is under way but is not complete.

The investigation began when a church audit concluded that Axe, who retired last year, had spent some of the parishioners' money on himself. In a joint statement Sunday with the archdiocese, Axe conceded he had misused church money.

"It is uncontested that Father Axe mismanaged the parish's funds and co-mingled personal expenses with expenses of the parish," the statement read. "The investigation also revealed that Father Axe mismanaged a substantial sum of money over the years of his pastorate at Good Shepherd parish, though not necessarily in every case for his personal benefit."

Church officials would not say Sunday how much of the $271,000 was used for personal expenses, but they did promise to reveal more details soon to parishioners.

"We want to be as transparent as possible," said archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco.

But Andriacco said some details of the investigation will not be revealed to protect the identity of individuals and groups who benefited from legitimate charitable uses of the fund. Axe could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Parishioners learned of the findings at Masses Saturday and Sunday when they received a copy of the joint statement. Good Shepherd is by far the largest parish in the archdiocese, with more than 4,000 families and 12,000 individual members.

Although individual parishioners could not be reached late Sunday, some parishioners issued a statement expressing relief that the investigation was over and promising that the church has changed the way it manages money.

"The year-long ordeal has sapped (the parish's) energy and eroded its trust in the leadership of the church," the statement said. "With this behind us, we can begin to heal."

The statement said changes in accounting and financial management include the elimination of all off-the-books discretionary funds and the adoption of all recommendations from the church's new accounting firm.

Church officials also will expand the finance committee to include randomly selected parishioners who are not appointed by the pastor.

Andriacco said Axe has not been suspended, although he is retired and is not expected to do part-time work in other parishes. According to the statement released Sunday, the church investigation found no evidence that Axe "deliberately engaged in any wrongdoing, bad faith actions or intentional misconduct."

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said he will decide whether any crimes occurred after reviewing the findings of the sheriff's investigation, which is ongoing.

"We'll make an independent determination as to whether there is any criminal wrongdoing," Allen said Sunday.

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E-mail dhorn@enquirer.com