What should we do, send him to hell or another parish?

December 16th, 2008 at 01:58pm Georgette Braun

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford struck a deal under which the Rev. Luis Alfredo Rios of St. Thomas the Apostle Church will apologize to the Algonquin man before his congregation, according to this Daily Herald story.

An Algonquin man, Angel Llavona, will get “a formal apology, but no financial reward, as part of an out-of-court settlement entered this morning ending his lawsuit claiming a parish priest defamed him from the pulpit.

“The remarks, court documents state, came after Llavona left Rios a phone message critical of his previous sermon, saying ‘I have seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records.’

“The following Sunday, the suit states, Rios played that message during mass, then, referring to Llavona, asked his congregation ‘What should we do, send him to hell or another parish?’

“The Diocese also will pay Llavona about $13,750 — his costs of filing and pursuing the lawsuit — but not any of the compensatory or punitive damages he was seeking for comments he claimed caused him emotional distress and damaged his professional reputation. He is a teacher at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.”

Entry Filed under: catholic church, religion