Posted on 10/30/2007 10:26:11 AM PDT by NYer
Richmond, Oct 29, 2007 / 10:47 am (CNA).- A retired Roman Catholic priest faces forty years in jail for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from two rural Virginian parishes, the Associated Press reports.
On Friday Father Rodney L. Rodis, 51, pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and one of money laundering.
Father Rodis embezzled money from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Bumpass and St. Jude Church in Mineral between 2002 and 2006, prosecutors said. He wired at least $515,231 to relatives in his native Philippines to purchase property.
Authorities said Father Rodis established bank accounts and a post office box, directing parishioners to mail contributions to them. He then transferred the money to his personal account.
Father Rodis also used the funds to support his family, which included a spouse and three children. He concealed them by living fifty miles away from his parishes.
"I wanted to hear Rodney Rodis admit his guilt," said William Hynes, who attends St. Jude. "And I wanted to see justice done."
The Diocese of Richmond said that Father Rodis embezzled more than $600,000 from the churches he led between 1993 and 2006. Under a plea agreement, he has agreed to repay at least $400,000.
Ping!
We had a similar situation with a Filipino priest in our diocese. He stole from his rural and not very wealthy parish for years and sent the money to the Philippines to support his wife and children. The bishop was so mad at him he even refused to bail the priest out when he was finally arrested for embezzlement. He sat in jail for trial, sentencing and deportation.
It looks like the bishops are doing a great job of screening priests.
All parishes should take heed and establish basic oversight guidelines. Or the diocese should, if the parish doesn’t have the skill set.
This is very preventable.
We’ve had problems with a number of our foreign-born priests (mostly Irish, but some Filipinos, too). The diocese found that a couple of the Irish clergy who had been here for decades were busy doing things like dipping into the collection and hiding thousands of dollars behind the ceiling panels, etc., for use in buying themselves retirement property in Ireland or condos here.
I think the bishops were convinced that the priest shortage was so drastic that they preferred not to look too closely at the priests they had, and people slipped by who probably wouldn’t have been able to get away with that behavior a generation or two earlier. Fortunately, I think the situation is improving now.
You can find crooks in any denomination. What deserved note was the bishop being so disengaged that he didn’t notice that the priest was married and living with his wife.
Ever the critic of AmChurch hierarchy, I propose that the accepting of foreign-born priests was part and parcel of the disposable priesthood that so many of these ecclesiatics believe in.
Deport the priest when he makes a boo boo; order up another.
Fr. Rodis and others have shown that although one might see oneself as a commodity, and rely on superiors who are more than willing to view you as such, alas, consequences stay behind even when you don’t survive them.
Huddled together in their hotel rooms at their conferences, bishops very well might be saying, “Okay, permanent deacons, lay parish coordinators, nun pastors, and the foreigners haven’t panned out. What else is in the catalog that doesn’t come with a right of domain?”
“Jack, what about ‘Priest for a week’?”
“Harry, I think you’re on to something there.”
This was an uninspired jab. Bad priests are out there. The bishops can’t pre-empt everyone of them.
"Disposable priesthood" is a good way of putting it. They really do see the priest as merely a necessary evil. There are obviously entire dioceses (such as Albany) that are working hard to get rid of him, but they haven't yet figured out how to get around that "confecting the Sacrament" thing. So they've decided to minimize the amount of time he is actually present, his contact with the people, etc. Eventually they will move to a fully Protestant model where nothing happens in the Mass and it's just a memorial, at which time they will be able to get rid of the priest entirely. They just don't dare to proclaim their new church quite yet.
The thing that is bizarre is that the NO, with its "presider's chair" and other insane and irritating novelties, tries to make the figure of the priest (but not his function) very important and almost the center of the show. But it's on the level with somebody, like Oprah, who's literally conducting a show.
The modernists have absolutely no use for the real priesthood or its work. I think one of the reasons we are seeing so much howling from the modernists about the "threat" of the old Mass is that they know it is completely incompatible with their plans, while the Novus Ordo can certainly be twisted to accomodate them. And I think this is in fact one of the reasons that the Pope is trying to reintroduce the old Mass.
Well, that's enough of a rant for this early in the morning!
Hammer. Nail.
Even a rudimentary background check should show marital status.
:) Bishops -- and bishops' conferences -- however, they see as the crown of creation. Far too lofty to have to be bothered with those pesky clergy and faithful! Talk about all chiefs and no Indians!
It's just outside Richmond. I know that area. It's not backwoods ...
He concealed them by living fifty miles away from his parishes.
Pastors not living on site at their Parishes is all too common in the Diocese of Richmond. Bp. Sullivan allowed this practice to start, and Bp. DiLorenzo has not corrected it. It's a big problem; it really degrades the Pastor's ability to be a Pastor.
The guidelines are already established in canon law, which requires every parish to have a financial council.
A competent financial council could have caught the problem at the beginning, when the priest tried to establish accounts on his own. However, I suspect they'd presume good faith and let it slide.
How can you minister to your people if you are over an hour away?
I think the ultimate goal is to have only one priest in the Chancery serving as a "Transubstantiation mechanic" who would on a weekly basis consecrate enough hosts to be sent to all the parishes in the Diocese, to be distributed by female "Eucharistic Ministers."
LOL! Yes, I think that's their dream. I've never quite figured out exactly WHY it's their dream - that is, who benefits - but it does seem to be totally burned into their few brain cells.
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