Huge embezzlement case in Richmond:
An embezzlement case in which a priest is accused of stealing more than $600,000 from two parishes has no comparison in recent memory, a lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond said.
"We’ve had people take a few hundred bucks out of the plate, but nothing of this magnitude," attorney William Etherington said yesterday.
The Rev. Rodney L. Rodis, 50, who until May was pastor at St. Jude Catholic Church in Mineral and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in nearby Bumpass, was indicted on a charge of felony embezzlement Monday.
Rodis appeared in Louisa General District Court yesterday morning where he agreed to surrender his passport as part of an agreement in which his bond was reduced from $100,000 to $10,000.
Rodis, a Philippine citizen who lives in Fredericksburg, appeared at the brief hearing wearing a black-and-white-striped Central Virginia Regional Jail jumpsuit. He listened calmly and attentively throughout the proceedings.
He is charged with embezzling donations intended for St. Jude and Immaculate Conception, both part of the Richmond Diocese. Together, the churches have about 500 parishioners.
The facts are not fully known, of course, but I’d like us to consider that last paragraph. We are always hearing about how Catholic parishes have no money, etc, with all kinds of implications, including concerns about Catholic’s lack of generosity and the restrictions on parish’s ability to do things because you know, there’s no money. Together, the churches have about 500 parishioners, and over a period of 5 years, he was able to pull 600,000 with really no one noticing. My point? Catholics need to be more generous (but given revelations like this…who can blame them?), but there is a shadow economy in many areas of Catholic institutional life that’s revealed every time we see a case like this in which huge amounts of money were skimmed, with no apparent "cost" in terms of services, and so on, to the parish.
A similar case emerged just a few years ago when a priest (also Filipino, just a coincidence, and I mention it because I knew the guy) in Florida was arrested and charged with taking 400,000 from his small parish over a period of three years. (he was sending it to his three children and their mother in the Philippines. Yes, that was rather a shock.). No one noticed until a routine audit was conducted after he was assigned to another parish.
The principal of Holy Cross High School in Delran took more than $200,000 he collected for student trips, book sales and summer school tuition, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the school.
The principal, Joseph Lemme, 49, also is the subject of a criminal investigation, according to the man’s attorney and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, which oversees the school.
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