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Possibly the world's smallest Catholic priest stole $1M to support wife and 3 kids

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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:23 AM
Original message
Possibly the world's smallest Catholic priest stole $1M to support wife and 3 kids
How's THAT for a subject line?

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urlmainpicture&blobheader=image/jpeg&blobkey=id&blobtable=MGImage&blobwhere=1149192736132&ssbinary=true


State police say Rodis may have diverted as much as $1 million in donations intended for the two churches he headed from 1993 until his retirement last year.

Authorities believe Rodis set up an account at that bank in a church name, deposited some donations there and used the money for other things.

She added that she never would have guessed that he might be living in Spotsylvania County with a woman he told neighbors was his wife and with three children.

Catholic priests are supposed to be celibate, and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond does not allow its priests to be married.

St. Jude has been raising $775,000 to retire the debt from its recently completed church building. Immaculate Conception also was raising about $100,000 to pay for its just-finished parish hall.

Church officials became aware of financial irregularities in November, when a Pennsylvania donor called a Louisa parish to say he had not received a tax receipt from a 2005 donation.






http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192735158&path=!news&s=1045855934842
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mikeytherat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:28 AM
Response to Original message
1. Yes! Channel 12 website still being stupid! Check this out:
http://www.nbc12.com/news/state/5250856.html

“I’m more hurt than I'm angry. We have so may parishioners -- we have retired officers. He dooped us for so long, we had so much faith in the man," says Cindy Honchar, parishioner at St. Jude’s Church.

I alerted them to this error two days ago.

mikey_the_rat
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Lance_Boyle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:49 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. What do you have against
the Democratic Order Of Planets? Are you *neutral* or something??? :P

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mikeytherat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:51 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. Sir! It's a beige alert!
Should we trust them? My gut says, "Maybe."

If I don't survive, tell my wife, "Hello."

mikey_the_rat

PS
"Kif! Fly the white flag of war!"
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hwmnbn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:32 AM
Response to Original message
2. The Catholic Church is breathing a sigh of relief.......
The priest was having sex with a grown woman. Whew!! :evilgrin:
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:33 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. Oh
:rofl:
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xultar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:39 AM
Response to Original message
4. That's the only reason the vatican don't want married priests...money
they don't want the money to go to the priests wives and kids.
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:36 AM
Response to Reply #4
10. You are almost right
In the eastern, Greek speaking part of the Roman Empire, an "episcopos" ("overseer") was a member of the imperial hierarchy, having a scope of power similar to that of a regional director or city mayor. Although technically an elected office, it was common for wealthy families to have a lock on the position and effectively hold the title as part of the family assets.

When Constantine made Christianity part of the Imperial system, men from wealthy noble families were baptized, ordained as priests and installed as episcopoi; these were the first bishops. (Being a Christian was, at first, considered optional: St. Ambrose was a pagan who looked favorably on Christianity when he was elected as Bishop of Milan. That he came from a noble family and knew how to rule was much more important than any religious belief.)

With official recognition and favor from the Emperor, Christianity became very prestigious. The wealthy joined because it was expected of them, and to join, the wealthy were expected to turn over vast amounts of wealth to help build new churches. The most opulent were the basillicas (the word originally meant any building used for the civil and religious ceremonies of the Imperial government), which also served as the home churches and palaces of the bishops. These became as richly decorated, if not more so, than the Emperor's palaces and basillicae.

As you can imagine, this kind of wealth and power in the control of the bishops tended to corrupt them. There were a number of instances in the very early church where bishops acted as the "civilian" episcopoi and basically bought the title (and attendant power and wealth) for their families, with the intent of passing down to their sons as part of their estate. Rather than attracting men who were pious and learned, the bishoprics attracted men who were greedy and sought to further their dynastic goals.

The Church took several steps towards correcting this problem. In 325, the Council of Nicea decreed that once he had been ordained a priest, clergy could not marry (although there was nothing to stop a deacon from being married -- Scripture actually requires that deacons have a wife -- and married men could be ordained as priests.) Soon after (I haven't been able to find out when) a rule was set down requiring that bishops may not have a wife, ie either their wives had died or they had never been married. These are the rules still held by the Orthodox churches and, again, the main idea was to prevent bishops from setting up dynasties.

Total clerical celebacy at all levels is required only in the Western (Roman Catholic) church. The policy officially into effect in 1074 by decree of Pope Gregory VII. Even so, secretly married clergy remained common until the Council of Trent, which held its last session in 1563. I would not at all be surprised to find out that it is still pretty common.
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xultar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 10:36 AM
Response to Reply #10
16. DAYUM...that's some good stuff. Thanks for posting it. I love reading this kinda
stuff.
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swimboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
5. It's a small world after all.
Great subject line. It's exactly what I thought when I saw the photograph in the morning paper.
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:53 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. The new Channel 12 newsreader actually let out some comment
somehting about "That guy" I couldn't make it out but she clearly was surprised at how short Rodis is.

Father Yoda
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Virginia Dare Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 08:59 AM
Response to Original message
7. I know somebody who went to that church on occasion...
she LOVED the guy, said he was so good with kids! My theory is that he is a serious sociopath.
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:02 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. It didn't appear to be such a big church as to raise $1M+
but hey :shrug: I guess they did.

Funny that no one else noticed a missing 1099.
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Virginia Dare Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:07 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Supposedly they've put major money into the church as well..
added a huge addition, etc. It puzzles me to, as that area is very poor and depressed. Where's the money coming from? Probably from little old ladies on social security, sacrificing food and other essentials. :mad:
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
11. what's good for popes is good for priests eh? nt
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ellenfl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 09:54 AM
Response to Original message
14. this paper needs some serious grammar/spelling help . . .
"he walked through a gantlet"?

ellen fl
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-19-07 10:17 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. LOL welcome to the world of the Times-Disgrace
Edited on Fri Jan-19-07 10:19 AM by underpants
Several of us post the wacko LTTE's that they actually publish (see the op/ed forum for "Buck Farleigh...." which astound daily.

The op/ed editor is a guy named H.Ross Mackenzie, if the pretentious initial doesn't get you stick around for the commentary in paragraph form that is so far out there that even Fox News doesn't pick up on it.

Finally there is the paper itself. The T-D has a by-line called "From wire reports" that is a careful editing of the parts they like from any source anywhere. These are often the lead national/political articles above the fold on page A1. Again so bad that even Fox News stays away.

ON EDIT- what really made me laugh is that I know of three people who have a relative who enjoy sitting down at the end of each day to peruse the T-D for grammatical and syntax errors.
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