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A man has admitted he lied about being an ex-Jesuit priest who used to work for the Pope in an effort to authenticate his Catholic memorabilia on the auction website Trade Me.
Last November, invalid beneficiary Bruce Gotobed, from Mataura, 12km southwest of Gore, sold a pectoral cross he claimed was made by papal tailors in Rome, to Auckland woman Allison Doody, the Southland Times reported.
Mr Gotobed claimed he was an ex-Jesuit priest and was a clerk for Pope Benedict XVI when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He said he did not have a certificate of authenticity because asking a friend proof of a gift given was "hardly the thing to do" . He said it was given to him in 1983, when the Pope was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Mrs Doody won the auction after bidding $1000 for the cross.
However, her suspicions were raised last week when other traders raised questions about "mendlesmanor" - Mr Gotobed's Trade Me name - and accused him of being a fraud.
Mrs Doody checked the United States online trading site eBay and found what appeared to be the same cross she had bought.
"It's for sale with a bid of $26 on it. It's exactly the same. It used exactly the same photos that he [Mr Gotobed] used in his auction."
Mrs Doody said she emailed Mr Gotobed, demanding a refund.
Mr Gotobed has now confessed he is not an ex-Jesuit priest but a former Franciscan monk. He says he bought the cross on eBay.
"It was a stupid mistake. I don't know what I was thinking. My thought patterns at times are quite wonky. I say things sometimes and think, 'Why the hell did I say that?'"
He blamed this on the medication he took for his bowel cancer, brain tumour and congenital kidney diseases.
Mr Gotobed agreed to refund Mrs Doody her money. Mrs Doody said she would return the cross.
Trade Me trust and safety manager Dean Winter said the company had restricted Mr Gotobed's membership and would respond to any complaints as they were received.
Father Anthony Malone, a former superior of the Franciscan friars in Auckland, said Mr Gotobed was never a monk but he did begin training to be a friar in the 1980s.
He said Mr Gotobed was asked to leave after only six months into his first year of training because of his poor health.
- NZPA
