Man Posing As Priest Scammed People For Years

Story out of Los Angeles, California:

Erwin Mena called himself “Padre” and celebrated Masses, confessions and baptisms, police say, but he was not your typical man of the cloth.

He was a con man posing as a priest, swindling churchgoers out of several thousands of dollars, police allege in court documents.

Mena, who also used the surname Menacastro, posed as a priest at St. Ignatius of Loyola parish in Highland Park. for about five months beginning in January 2015, according to Guevara’s affidavit filed in L.A. County Superior Court. Mena 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,” the affidavit states.

Church officials told detectives that Mena had misrepresented himself as a priest in the archdiocese since the mid 1990s, according to court documents. Whenever the archdiocese caught wind of his activities — leading prayer groups or working in parishes — he would disappear, the affidavit said.

An organization lent about $16,000 to Mena for recording and producing CDs about Pope Francis, Guevara said. Investigators concluded that Mena had pirated the video, which was originally produced in Madrid.

But his biggest scam, police allege, was the trip to see the Holy Father. Guevara said Mena solicited between $500 and $1,000 from people to go see the pope back east. The money was supposed to cover airfare and lodging in convents, he said, adding that more than two dozen people signed up. Cont.

Story from - LA Times