Restaurant Hires Fake Priest To Elicit Employee Confessions

A California restaurant allegedly hired a random guy to impersonate a priest to encourage employees to confess their sins against their employer. I wish I was making this up. I very much am not. The incident concerns the company Che Garibaldi Inc. which operates two taquillera Garibaldi restaurants in Sacramento and one in Roseville. According to Catholic news agency, which is not necessarily a source I ever thought I

would be citing. During the Department of Labor's litigation and federal court, an employee testified that in November 2021, restaurant operator Eduardo Hernandez offered a person identified as a priest to hear confessions during work hours. Now Maria Para, a server at taquillera Garibaldi said in a sword affidavit. I 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. The priest mostly had work related questions, which I thought was strange. According to the employee that the supposed priest urged employees to get the sins out. He asked them if they had stolen from their employer, been late for work or done anything to harm their employer. The purported priest also asked if they had bad intentions

toward their employer, the Department of Labor said, now I'll just pause here and say, I was raised to Catholic. I went through all the sacraments and except for death. I haven't done that or gotten married. But I did go to confession pretty regularly when I was younger. I never had a priest ask me a single question. I just said, I don't know. I didn't listen to

my mom sometimes. And he was like, all right, do it. Our father and your cured. I've never had a priest. Press me to give more information. So she was absolutely right to be tipped off. It's not copicetic with what's going on here. It wasn't just her. It was several workers who felt that Ernandas had brought in the priest to intimidate them. But it wasn't that. It

turned out this dude was not even a priest. Brian J. Vestation, director of media and communications for the diocese of Sacramento, that this guy was not a priest. And he said, our own investigation found no evidence of any connection between the diocese of Sacramento and the alleged priest in this matter. Well, 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 US Department of Labor on June 12 said the use of the supposed priest was among the most shameless of corrupt actions employers have used against employees. And that is a damn high bar. Okay. That bar is the sky. So to be the most shameless. Wow. Wow. Mark Pilotin, the Department of Labor's regional Solicitor, who litigated the case,

said that in addition to the restaurant offering a supposed priest. Other employees reported that a manager falsely claimed that immigration issues would be raised by the department's investigation. So not only are they bringing forth a fake priest so that these employees will be charged with a false trust or since against the company. They're also insinuating that if they cooperate with the, and I'm insinuating, explicitly saying,

if they cooperate with the investigation into this fake priest. That they might get deported, that their family might get deported. So this is, I mean, it's funny on its face, but it's also deeply sinister. And I think the most upsetting part for me is this last bit about what their penalty is. US Judge William B. Schub on May 8th ordered J. Garibaldi L. C. and its

operators Eduardo Hernandez, Ectermannuol Martinez, Galindo and Alejandro Rodriguez to pay $70,000 in back wages and $70,000 in damages to 35 employees. In addition, the restaurant and its owners must pay $5,000 in civil penalties to the Department of Labor. Jank, that is insultingly low. That is an insultingly small amount of money. Yeah, so I don't know how gigantic this company is. But yes, that is as egregious

as it gets. So the fine should have been commiserate with the crime here. I mean, this is just mental. So what were they, look, I think that there's two reasons why the priest only asked questions about this. Work, one is obvious because he wanted to find out if they were doing something wrong. It worked. That was the whole point of the fake priest, right? But as

I was reading the story, I thought, there's probably a second reason. It's because he didn't want them to confess other things, like potentially crimes or something about their private lives and their family. Because imagine, I mean, if they think he's a real priest and you're doing a real confession, what if the guys start scanning into? This is what I did to my wife and this is

what I did to my neighbor. Who, don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me, right? So I wonder if some of them did tell. Oh, this is like all the crazy things I've seen companies do. I get hats off to the anti-Chaguvera company, the chick, the revolty company. I mean, they're like, okay, I don't know if they were trying to rescue the name, Che, for

lay stage capitalism. But this is one of the most and greatest things I've ever seen, full blown mental. I didn't even think about that. I didn't even consider what if someone was like, forgive me, father, for I'm said, it's been, I don't know, six weeks since my last confession, I killed my neighbor. It's not impossible, right? That person has to tell the blade. Yeah, especially because

they're not a priest. So there's no exception. And so they must report the crime. I mean, this is just, it's very poorly thought. It is as abusive to your employees as you could possibly imagine. And look, I'm not a person who believes in confession. I didn't grow up Catholic. I've always thought it was super weird. I get it in the old days is basically like their

substitute for therapists. And so it has some value in people venting and etc. But I got news for you just randomly telling your sins or your secrets to a dude that wears a funny outfit isn't going to affect the mythical creature in the sky in terms of your judgment. But hey, that's just me. And I've never believed that those confessions wouldn't be used against people. I'm

sure that most of them weren't. I'm sure that most of the priests, I hope, crossed your fingers. We're good guys and they kept things. But are you telling me that it was never used for best? Are you crazy? I bet you a giant percentage of it. We're used by actual priests against folks. So word to the wise, I'm not big on the confession spot overall. Thanks

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