Priest gambles with over $620,000 belonging to parish

An Italian priest has gambled away more than 620,000 dollars of his parish money, reports said on Thursday.

Flavio Gobbo, 48, negotiated a plea bargain for a suspended two-year jail term for embezzlement, according Corriere della Sera, a newspaper in Italy.

As part of the deal, he has promised to gradually return the money and signed up for therapy against gambling addiction, with the support of his church superiors.

“In this long and streneous journey, Father Flavio has mainly found support in prayers, but also in the will to return soon,” to active ministry, the Diocese of Treviso said in a statement.

Gobbo left his post as parish priest in Spinea, near Venice, in October 2016.

At the time, the local church said he was suffering from exhaustion.