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Indicted priest, woman mailed Christmas cards with address labels implying they were wed. Date published: 1/15/2007
By PAMELA GOULD Neighbors of Rodney L. Rodis and Joyce F. Sillador say they had no reason to suspect the pair was anything but a nice couple with three daughters. The two invited people into their home for parties at Christmas and on the girls' birthdays. They sent out Christmas cards signed, "Love, Rodney, Joyce and girls." They even had printed address labels reading "Rodney and Joyce Rodis" with their street address on Watson Lane in the Sheraton Hills East community of Spotsylvania County. It would all seem completely unremarkable except for one thing--Rodney Lee Rodis was a Catholic priest. His double life--as a family man in Spotsylvania County and a Catholic priest in Louisa County--came to light over the past week following his indictment on a felony charge of embezzlement. Rodis, 50, is accused of steal-ing an estimated $600,000 from the two Louisa churches he served for more than a decade--St. Jude in Mineral and Immaculate Conception in Buckner. Attempts to get comment from Rodis or Sillador at the home or via telephone were unsuccessful yesterday. Neighbors remained in disbelief, six days after the indictment. Several spoke yesterday but asked to remain anonymous. "I've seen weaker scripts than this on TV," one neighbor said yesterday. He and his wife had been searching for some way to comprehend the sudden shift in realities. In trying to reconcile what they had known with what they had now learned of Rodis, they admitted they were left with few options. The best they could muster was: Does he have a twin? "That's how mind-boggling it is," said the man. Neighbors interviewed yesterday spoke of a "nice family" and had nothing ill to say of Rodis or Sillador. They expressed sympathy and shock, and spoke of the three well-behaved girls who were estimated to range from elementary-school age to college age. Sillador and Rodis appear to have lived together for more than a dozen years. According to an online public records search, Sillador bought their current home in June 1994 for $115,000. Records show Rodis living there as of July 1994. Those records show Sillador as both Joyce F. Sillador and Joyce Sillador Rodis.
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