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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, 115 EAST ARMOUR BOULEVARD, KANSAS CITY, MO 64111. E-MAIL: [email protected]
John Geoghan's murder
* This has not been a good year for the Catholic church. We were bombarded almost daily by the media with horror stories about the scandalous activities of pedophile priests. We saw cardinals and bishops asking forgiveness for their sins of omission in failing to take corrective action against clergymen guilty of scandal. We heard priests on Sunday morning express their shame and embarrassment over the shocking stories of sinful priests.
Like everyone else, I was tired of it all and hoped every one of us in the church, from top to bottom, would get back to fundamentals and vigorously imitate Christ.
And now God in some mysterious way is permitting Fr. John Geoghan, after his brutal murder, to prod the consciences of all of us. John Geoghan was serving time for his unthinkable crimes and rightly so. But John Geoghan had his right to life taken from him under very questionable circumstances. And now the same members of the hierarchy who are pictured in their diocesan papers leading "Right to Life" marches have nothing to say about the outrageous murder of an imprisoned priest. Priests who have been outspoken and eloquent in their support of right to life now refuse to speak out in protest against the murder of a fellow priest. A layman who boasted on television that he was a good practicing Catholic could only say, "Geoghan got what he deserved."
Fr. John, you were unjustly deprived of your life on earth. Your right to eternal life is in the merciful hands of God. May your soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
JAMES VERITY
Rockaway, N. Y.
* Who killed Fr. John J. Geoghan, the Catholic priest and convicted child-abuser who was strangled to death in a Massachusetts prison last month?
Or maybe the better question is: What killed the infamous sex abuser of children early in his prison sentences for crimes against a child who trusted him?
Perhaps the answer to that question can be found in a single world: silence.
Although law enforcement officials blame a violent cellmate for the killing, you have to wonder if the pathetic...