Retired Filipino Priest Sentenced to over 5 Years in Prison

**HyBrideVo** · February 23rd, 2008 11:07 AM

February 22, 2008
Retired Priest Sentenced for Bilking Two Churches
By LISA A. BACON

RICHMOND, Va. — A retired Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Thursday to more than five years in prison for bilking two churches out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while he led a double life as a husband and father.

He was also ordered to pay back almost $600,000.

Standing barely five feet tall and leaning on a bamboo walking stick, the retired priest, Rodney L. Rodis, 51, apologized to the court, to the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, and to about a dozen former parishioners who had driven for an hour to reach the federal courthouse here.

“To the parishioners, I am really sorry for what I have done to you,” he said, turning to face the courtroom gallery. “You know what is in my heart. I know what I did was wrong.”

In a plea agreement last October, Mr. Rodis pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering.

According to court documents, from September 2002 to August 2006, Mr. Rodis embezzled an estimated $600,000 to $700,000 from St. Jude Catholic Church and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, both in central Virginia, by instructing parishioners to mail contributions to a post office box that he controlled. He then transferred the money to a personal bank account.

He used the money, the authorities said, to support his wife and three daughters — with whom he lived about 50 miles from his churches — and to help relatives in his native Philippines and to buy property there.

Mr. Rodis has been incarcerated since his $10,000 bond was revoked in May 2007 after he tried to travel to Mexico.

Although he served both churches for 14 years, the activities that led to the charges occurred from 2002 to 2006, when he retired for health reasons. Mr. Rodis has diabetes and prostate cancer.

A letter to the court from Mr. Rodis’s wife, Joyce, offered some insight into what became of the embezzled money. In asking for mercy for her husband, Mrs. Rodis wrote that he provided for his parents and that he “had also been a surrogate parent to his nieces and nephews. He has sponsored their education through college.”

Funds were used, too, to pay for surgery for a niece who has cancer, according to the letter.

And as part of his restitution, Assistant United States Attorney Brian L. Whisler said in court, Mr. Rodis on Wednesday surrendered titles for eight properties bought with church funds in the Philippines.

Diocese officials said that they did not know Mr. Rodis was married when he came to Virginia, and that they had now cut off his retirement and health insurance benefits.

Mr. Rodis faced a maximum sentence of 20 years on each count. Although prosecutors recommended a sentence of 51 months, Judge Richard L. Williams of Federal District Court here set Mr. Rodis’s term at 63 months, saying the crimes happened over several years, during which he “developed a criminal mentality and kept doing it.”

Source: The New York Times

**empy** · February 23rd, 2008 11:19 AM

i believe there is a special place in hell for those who cheat or hurt other people in the name of God

**fourtheboys96** · February 23rd, 2008 11:24 AM

maybe we can send this to our local church leaders and let them realize (some of them have not) that they should clean up their house first before telling others to clean theirs....hehehe...patawad po

**uls** · February 23rd, 2008 12:06 PM

He prayed to God asking for money...

Tada!

**pup2** · February 23rd, 2008 01:10 PM

Tsk, tsk. The ends never justify the means, my friend. For that reason siguro kaya thrown out yung appeal nung babae.Pero patawarin ka sana ng Diyos.I wonder if his sickness and his being in a foreign country provided him with self-justification?