Last year, Mena allegedly sold tickets to a pilgrimage to visit NY and see the Pope during his Philadelphia visit in September, prosecutors said.
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“He used us, he stole from us, and that’s it”, she said.
Mena had allegedly been posing as a priest for about 20 years, primarily in Southern California, but vanishing before church authorities could catch him, ABC stated.
A criminal complaint filed by the LA County district attorney’s office said he has been charged with 22 felonies and eight misdemeanors, the LA Times reported.
However, he managed to pose as a man of the cloth in at least two parishes in the Los Angeles area, including one that needed a substitute priest and that failed to check his credentials.
“He smiled, talked about how good things were. He was not a fire and brimstone kind of preacher”, another victim recalled.
“We had always been raised not to question authority figures”, Oviedo said. In June 2015, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles contacted the Los Angeles Police Department to report that their parishioners had been defrauded by Mena. He was also reported in San Bernardino, Stockton, Fresno, and Orange County.
One problem: He’s never been a Catholic priest.
He allegedly made money by borrowing from people, selling faith-based videos for $25 and producing several eBooks, including one about his “irreverant confessions” where he discussed celibacy. Mena, 59, is charged with perjury and grand theft.
Court documents claimed that the rogue priest would manage to disappear whenever the archdiocese tried to investigate his activities, which included leading prayer groups or working in the parish.
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Despite having been on the list of unaurthorised priests and deacons since its creation in 2008, Mena had avoided repercussions for his actions until now. Some victims have been reimbursed, and those who received the sacraments from Mena can receive them again, said Doris Benavides, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles archdiocese. Mena was ordered held on Wednesday in lieu of US$100,000 bail pending his arraignment on February 24.
