Orlando-based military contractor Idemma has failed to meet payment obligations for some of its subcontractors who worked in Catholic ministry positions at U.S. military bases, according to three people who say they are still owed thousands of dollars by the company.
Three people who spoke with EWTN News reported that Idemma was routinely late in paying them for their work and missed payments that have still not been fulfilled. In some cases, late payments are more than a year overdue, subcontractors said. Each person said Idemma initially promised to make them whole and then eventually stopped responding to emails or phone calls.
Michael Aldeguer, administrative assistant for Idemma, told EWTN News “the overwhelming majority” of obligations were paid, and acknowledged “a limited number of contractor accounts that remain under review or resolution.”
He said the company is “firmly committed to honoring our contractual obligations and resolving legitimate outstanding amounts.” He said Idemma plans to “make substantial progress toward resolving the remaining matters by year-end.”
On Sept. 10, Aldeguer said Idemma would reach out to every subcontractor “today” to “ensure they have received our recent communications and are aware of the latest updates.”
The Pentagon referred an inquiry by EWTN News to the military service departments, which oversee the contracts.
Contractor describes worsening payment lag
Paulette Padua began working as a Catholic religious education coordinator at Beale Air Force Base in California in 2013, initially as an independent contractor. In 2020, Padua was underbid by Idemma, which took over the contract but kept her in the role.
Initially, Padua said payments came as agreed upon, but “something happened” in 2025 and “payment became later and later and every month.” Her contract ended in September, and she said there is still more than $8,000 in outstanding payments owed to her.
“I kept having to beg for my pay,” she said, and was “sending constant, constant emails” to the company to receive her payments. An email chain that Padua shared with EWTN News shows an Idemma employee repeatedly promising to complete the payments, but with her responding that only partial payments were being made.
Padua said Idemma promised to pay her back in increments in 2026, but she only received a $200 check. She said the company no longer responds to her emails about payments, complaining that “they just ghost [me].”
“It was causing me so much stress that it was making me sick so at a certain point I had to let go and let God have his way,” Padua said. “I can’t let them give me a heart attack.”
Padua, who was crying when recalling the situation, said losing payments “was very difficult physically, emotionally, and financially,” adding: “I worked for them for so long and I love that military community and I was good at my job and just to be done so dirty it feels terrible.”
She said she was “counting on” those payments and was reassured “you’re going to get paid.”
“Should I tell that to my mortgage company? For my car loans? For my bills?” she asked.
Another subcontractor who said she faced similar issues is Dianne Hodges, who had two contracts with Idemma, one of which was paid late and the other which is still not paid off. She said most of it was paid off by June 2026, about a year after she’d completed the initial contract.
Hodges said they still owe her $3,200 for the other contract she worked but that Idemma did not respond to her most recent emails in August about the remaining balance, saying “they’ve gone radio silent on me” and worrying “I guess I’ll never see it.”
“It’s been a nightmare,” Hodges said. “It’s been an absolute nightmare.”
Hodges said the delayed payments led to trouble with creditors and late fees on credit cards that she couldn’t pay off. She had to pull money out of her 401K to pay her bills and shop for Christmas gifts in 2024.
“It was tough for me sometimes to make ends meet,” she said, adding that when she called Idemma about the financial struggles she faced that year, “I broke down in tears, I was telling them this is not how a business works.”
Morgan Loftis, who worked as a director of religious education at the Marine Corps Air Station New River from September 2025 through May 2026, told EWTN News she is also still owed thousands of dollars in payments from Idemma.
Loftis said she was owed $12,300 but was only paid $4,875, which leaves $7,425 unpaid.
In May 2026, before she left the role, she said Idemma “offered to pay me in full … if I stayed onto the next year because they were about to lose the contract.” She said she considered the offer and requested “an actual payment plan in writing” but never received one. Now, she said “they won’t take my calls.”
“I think they know our numbers and they’re just not going to respond,” she said, referring to the subcontractors who are still owed money.
Loftis said she took the role even though she heard other subcontractors were not getting paid, but “I wanted there to be a faith formation program and it looked like there wasn’t going to be one.”
Yet, as she and her husband are expecting their fifth child and bought a new car, she said, “it would be really nice to have had the full pay. That could really alleviate how hard that car payment hits.”
Archbishop Broglio: Allegations ‘deeply troubling’
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, expressed concern about the lack of payments.
“The archdiocese … has no contractual or business relationship with Idemma, which operates under direct contract with the federal government,” Broglio said in a statement to EWTN News.
“Even so, the allegations of late or missed payments, if true, are deeply troubling,” he said. “Idemma has a moral responsibility to meet its payroll obligations in a timely fashion. I strongly encourage the company to do so.”
In email exchanges about the missed payments, Idemma responded to the specific cases of the three subcontractors who spoke with EWTN News.
For Hodges, Aldeguer noted that one contract was “recently cleared and paid in full” and said “payments have continued to be made toward the remaining balance, and we have also added interest.”
For Padua, he said Idemma has “agreed to pay interest, which we also confirmed to her in writing.” He said in her situation, “we agreed to pay her more than what we received under the contract” because she was the chaplainʼs first choice. He said: “This arrangement worked until our other live music business was essentially wiped out by COVID.”
For Loftis, Aldeguer said “we are still verifying the amounts owed” and “she should have received a request to upload her invoices related to the contract.”
“Each situation is different, and we are making our best efforts to get everything cleared as soon as possible, with interest being applied to the final remaining balances where agreed,” Aldeguer said. “Ultimately, we are a small team that is extremely dedicated to getting these matters resolved, even in situations where we ourselves sustained significant losses on the underlying contracts.”
He said Idemma has implemented a centralized invoice-submission process for contractors with unresolved accounts to collect outstanding invoices and documents in one place to compare them to their records, identify discrepancies, and resolve outstanding balances.
Aldeguer requested that EWTN News delay publication while the company worked to resolve outstanding contractor accounts, saying recent progress wasnʼt being reflected.
