SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) — A California restaurant used a fake priest to hear “confessions,” according to a Department of Labor (DOL) investigation.
An employee testified as part of a DOL investigation into Che Garibaldi, a company that runs two Taqueria Garibaldi restaurants, that a “priest” was brought into to hear “confessions” from employees in what appears to have been a ruse to get the workers to admit to breaking workplace rules.
The DOL said that it has seen “all kinds of scams to shortchange workers” and efforts “to intimidate or retaliate against employees,” but this “may be among the most shameless.” The investigation focused on unpaid wages to 35 employees, totaling $140,000.
The DOL announced:
During litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor in federal court, an employee of Che Garibaldi Inc., operator of Taqueria Garibaldi, testified that the restaurant offered employees a person identified as a priest to hear confessions during work hours. The employee told the court the priest urged workers to ‘get the sins out,’ and asked employees if they had stolen from the employer, been late for work, had done anything to harm their employer, or if they had bad intentions toward their employer.
“Ultimately, the employer agreed to a consent judgment, and Judge William B. Shubb in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ordered Che Garibaldi and owners and operators Eduardo Hernandez, Hector Manual Martinez Galindo and Alejandro Rodriguez to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to 35 employees,” the Labor Department announced.
“The court’s May 8, 2023, action follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found Taqueria Garibaldi denied employees overtime pay for hours over 40 in a workweek, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the DOL announced. “They also learned the employer paid managers from the employee tip pool illegally, threatened employees with retaliation and adverse immigration consequences for cooperating with the department, and fired one worker who they believed had complained to the department.”
“This employer’s despicable attempts to retaliate against employees were intended to silence workers, obstruct an investigation and prevent the recovery of unpaid wages,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin stated in the news release.
A server testified that she “found the conversation to be strange and unlike normal confessions.”
“He asked if I ever got pulled over for speeding, if I drank alcohol, or if I had stolen anything,” Maria Parra said, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. “The priest mostly had work-related questions, which I thought was strange.”
The Diocese of Sacramento confirmed that none of their priests were involved with the restaurant’s scam.
“Our own investigation found no evidence of any connection between the Diocese of Sacramento and the alleged priest in this matter,” Bryan Visitacion, media relations director for the Diocese of Sacramento, told the Catholic News Agency. “While we don’t know who the person in question was, we are completely confident he was not a priest of the Diocese of Sacramento.”
The Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church must be heard by an ordained priest with permission from the local bishop. “Only priests who have received the faculty of absolving from the authority of the Church can forgive sins in the name of Christ,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains.
Catholics must confess all mortal sins, also called grave sins, in order to be absolved of their sins and be able to receive the Holy Eucharist.
It is also classified as a mortal sin to impersonate a priest or pretend to perform the sacraments. Real priests are forbidden, under pain of excommunication, from revealing sins heard during the Sacrament of Confession in what is known as the Seal of Confession.