Former priest faces federal embezzlement charges in Virginia

 

10/2/2007

The Catholic Virginian (www.catholicvirginian.org)

RICHMOND, Va. (The Catholic Virginian) - Rodney Rodis, a former priest of the Diocese of Richmond, has pled not guilty to federal charges with 13 counts covering mail fraud and money laundering.

 

Rodis, who is being held as a federal prisoner at Northern Neck Regional Jail, is believed to have embezzled more than $1 million from the parish collections of St. Jude Church in Mineral and Immaculate Conception parish in Buckner where he had served as pastor for 12 years. Both are rural parishes in Louisa County.

He has been incarcerated since May after his bond of the state embezzlement charges, now dismissed because of the new federal charges, was revoked. He had violated his conditions of release by leaving the state while awaiting trial. Prior to incarceration, he had been living in a house near Fredericksburg.

The federal indictment alleges that the former priest, a 51-year-old native of the Philippines, wired $515,231 in embezzled money to addresses in the Philippines.

Rodis retired from the active ministry in June 2005, citing that he had suffered a stroke and was ill with prostate cancer.

The diocese has cut off his health benefits and retirement pay. He is no longer able to celebrate Mass or any of the Church’s sacraments nor represent himself as a priest.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams of Richmond has scheduled a trial to begin Oct. 25. It is expected to last three days.