Thomas John Rodi

[citation needed] Rodi selected as his episcopal motto: Caritas Christi Urget Nos, 2 Cor 5:14, meaning, "The love of Christ compels us.

[5] In 2009, after Rodi had left Biloxi for a new assignment, more than 150 parishioners at St. Paul Catholic Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi, filed a lawsuit against the Diocese, Rodi, and their pastor, claiming that their pastor had deceived them in soliciting donations for the reconstruction of their parish church after it was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 despite knowing the Diocese did not plan to replace the structure.

[6][7][a] Pope Benedict XVI named Rodi the archbishop of Mobile on April 2, 2008,[3] replacing Bishop Oscar Lipscomb.

[9] In December 2018, Rodi on his own initiative released a report of all religious who had worked in the Mobile (arch)diocese credibly accused of sexual misconduct since 1950.

It provided the names, parish assignments, and "date of misconduct" of 12 diocesan clergy and 17 members of religious orders who worked in the (arch)diocese; 17 were deceased and the other 12 prohibited from exercising their ministry in the archdiocese.

[11] In July 2023, Rodi announced that he was notifying civil authorities that 30-year-old Alex Crow, whom he had ordained a priest just two years earlier, had left for Italy with an 18-year-old girl, a recent graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School.

[13] In mid-August Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch expressed disappointment with the cooperation of Church officials who in his view responded to queries but seemed incapable of going "above and beyond".

[13] They pointed to an online petition with over a thousand signatures demanding that Rodi and the president and principal of the high school resign their positions.

[15] In a 30 September statement in response, Rodi said complaints only reached him just before the pair left for Italy, that sexual misconduct was not alleged, and that "the Office of Child Protection opened a file to begin investigating these reports".