Erwin Mena, a California man who posed as priest since the mid-1990s - officiating at masses, funerals, confessions, and at least one marriage, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of grand theft.
Mena, 59, was arrested in Elysian Park, Calif., without incident and is currently jailed, reported the Associated Press. He declined to comment when asked about his charges as he was escorted from LAPD headquarters, only saying "Not at this time." It's unclear whether he has an attorney.
Operating under aliases such as "Padre" and "Menacastro," Mena has been charged with 22 felonies and 8 misdemeanors stemming from the con game he had been working for at least 20 years. One such scam involved him posing as priest at St. Ignatius of Loyola parish in Highland Park between Jan. and May of 2015. During that time, he traveled from parish to parish, selling CDs that he recorded and peddling a book he claimed to have written titled: "Confessions of a Renegade Catholic Priest."
Another scam included having an organization lend Mena $16,000 to Mena to record and produce CDs about Pope Francis which turned out to be pirated and originally produced in Madrid.
However, his biggest and most recent scam was the trip to see the Pope during last year's U.S. visit, reported the Los Angeles Times. He allegedly solicited between $500 and $1,000 from people who wanted the chance to see the holy father in person. At least two dozen people signed up in total.
Churchgoer Nancy Resendiz expressed sadness over the fact that Mena chose to take advantage of the churchgoing community for so long, but noted something seemed off about him from the moment she met him.
"Mainly some of the homilies he gave; some of the things he talked about just didn't seem right," she said, according to CBS Los Angeles.
"People around here in the community Latinos, we give. We give to our priest. We give to our church. We want to help out. So, people out of their kind heart, they gave. And he took advantage of that," she added.
Now with Mena in police custody, the archdiocese is working to reimburse his victims - both monetarily and spiritually. Any witnesses who testify in the criminal case against him could be reimbursed after the case concludes and anyone who received sacraments from Mena can receive them again, said Doris Benavides, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles archdiocese.
