Holy smoke

May 12, 2006 at 12:52 am (Uncategorized)

 

 

Take a stroll around the blog universe and some common themes begin to appear. Much attention is paid to the hot topics of the day. Religion is hotly debated just about everywhere. Aged matters of crime and punishment are discussed ad nauseum. The judicial system is a hot topic of conversation in maybe half the blogs out there, with conservatives mud wrestling with liberals all over the issue. Most of those conservatives are wrinkly and the liberals are pale. Put you clothes back on, fellas.

Here at the Lost Sole, I like to think we're above it all. We chose the far corners of the earth over the equator, figuratively speaking. We eschew the mainstream topics du jour in favor of dog feces, big-talking fugitives and dead things. We are a wise bunch and an expansive one.

Here though, is an opportunity too rich in controversy to pass up. Why, it has religion, the judicial system and ritualistic violence all rolled into one. A tragic case, the murder of Margaret Ann Pahl casts a hard glow on the issue of Catholicism and the secretive nature of the religion; on the court system, which is wildly inconsistent about who it sends to prison and for how long, and on that nasty potential of human nature in general.

Behold the Rev. Gerald Robinson. I suppose one could make the claim that, at least he hasn't been caught groping children. Still, murdering a sister from the church and staging it to blame Satan. How many Hail Mary's do you suppose that kind of thing warrants, anyway?

Many, many crimes — too many to count, really — have been blamed on the devil or those who worship him. Typically though, you'll find that the devil is a mere metaphor for mental illness or just deviant behavior and a whole bucket load of denial and lack of accountability. See also: "The devil made me do it." Who needs an incarnation of evil, when we have such a legion of nasty bastards who are atrocious enough on their own?

Wire reports from Toledo, Ohio: A 68-YEAR-OLD Catholic priest has been found guilty of the murder 26 years ago of a nun in a crime that prosecutors said had Satanic undertones and may have been covered up by church leaders.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson appeared stony faced as the jury's guilty verdict was read today and he blinked repeatedly and glanced at his lawyers before being led away in handcuffs. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Robinson, who wore his clerical collar throughout the two-week trial, had been free on bail raised by supporters since his arrest in 2004, and relieved of his priestly duties since that time.

The crime occurred in the sacristy adjoining the hospital chapel in downtown Toledo on the Sunday before Easter in 1980. Investigators said the nun, Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was strangled and then stabbed, with nine wounds on her chest forming the shape of an inverted cross, a well-recognized Satanic symbol. An altar cloth was draped over her half-naked body, which was posed as if she had been sexually assaulted.

Robinson, prosecutors said, was motivated by anger at Sister Pahl's domineering personality that culminated in her complaints about how he had conducted a Good Friday service the night before the murder.

The case was reopened in 2003 after prosecutors obtained a letter from an unidentified woman charging that Toledo priests including Robinson had molested her and engaged in Satanic rituals. Prosecutors said Robinson's letter opener was the murder weapon, based on blood splatter patterns at the murder scene and a stab wound in her jawbone.

"It was about how he could humiliate her the most," prosecutor Dean Mandros said in closing arguments. "He left a message for everyone to see … maybe to God himself."

The investigation in 1980 initially centred on Robinson, the hospital's chaplain and a priest of the Toledo Catholic Diocese, who repeatedly lied to investigators, prosecutors said.