WASHINGTON - The story of Rev. Rodney L. Rodis, who for 14 years led a double life as a family man and as priest in Virginia, has left Filipino Americans in the area shaking their heads.
The front page story of the Jan. 30 issue of “The Washington Post” said the church funds Rodis is accused of embezzling was about $600,000 to $700,000, possibly more," as more parishioners came up to account for their contributions through the years. The Manila Mail’s front page story (Jan. 31 issue) said the amount could rise up to $1 million because banks dispose of their records after several years.
“I was talking about this with a couple
of friends, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, what was he doing?’" said a
Filipino auxiliary member of the Legion of Mary in Ballston, Virginia
who declined to give her name. “But my faith in the Catholic religion has not
been shaken, no, of course not," she added. She said unfortunately, it was
not good for the reputation of Filipinos and the Catholic faith.
Linda Castro, who resides in the
neighboring state of Maryland,
said it was sad. “Pinoy pa naman. And the Catholic religion has already been
rocked by the scandal involving priests molesting young people, and now
something like this happens. For sure, it would result in the loss of more
parishioners."
The first question among those who know
community leader and columnist of a Filipino American newspaper in San
Francisco Rodel Rodis when the story broke out was whether the two are related.
The news prompted Rodil to write the priest was no relation of his.
Rodis, 50, arrested Jan. 8 and released
on a $10,000 bond, “has been living with a woman identified in court records as
his wife and three children an hour away in Spotsylvania County,
where his neighbors believed he was in the import-export business." It
identified the wife as Joyce Sillador-Rodis.
The report noted parishioners were still
“reeling” from the news of the arrest. It added that under the charismatic
Rodis, the Louisa parishes of Immaculate Conception in Buckner and St. Jude in
Mineral grew in membership. Rodis also raised “hundreds of thousands of dollars
for capital improvements."
The report quoted parishioner Phil
Scoggin, Immaculate Conception’s finance committee chairman who said Rodis
“wowed everybody.” Scoggin wrote a check for $500 on hearing the priest’s plea
for Indonesian tsunami victims during a mass. He called Rodis’s action as
unconscionable, on learning the money went to the priest’s secret account at a
branch of Virginia Heartland Bank in Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
The Richmond
diocese discovered the anomaly after an Immaculate Conception donor asked for a
receipt for a $1,000 contribution for tax purposes in June last year. No
receipt could be found for the canceled
check. The donor found out in October it had been deposited in Rodis’s alleged
secret account, Scoggin was quoted as saying.
The report said Rodis emailed
parishioners in the Jan. 17 message to “express my heartfelt apology for the
trouble this might [have] caused you. Whatever the Church may decide regarding
my case, I will fully accept the consequences. Please include me in your prayers."
Rodis’s lawyer was quoted as saying the
priest, ordained in the Order of St. Camillus
in 1986, has no criminal record. Rodis retired as head of the Louisa parishes
in May after suffering a stroke and injuries from a car accident, he added.
By Jennie L. Ilustre
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