Still Running Off at the Keyboard

Sin, Shame, Secrets. By David Yonke.

The 1980 ritual murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl went unsolved for more than two decades, until cold case investigators arrested Father Gerald Robinson, a 66-year-old Catholic priest, at his home next door to a police station in Toledo, Ohio. Two years later, a jury convicted Fr. Robinson of the murder. Yonke, religion editor for the Toledo Blade details the bizarre circumstances surrounding the 1980 crime, the initial investigation and its rebirth in late 2003. Just as instructive as the unlikely scenario of priest-kills-nun in satanic ritual with a letter opener in a hospital chapel in the presence of the Holy Eucharist is the Toledo diocese's response to the murder investigation. Characterized as a cover-up, it was at minimum a lack of total cooperation. Nevertheless, elements of the occult -- including an inexplicable Black Mass -- pepper this narrative like no other recent titles that explore the topic of clergy sexual abuse. -- May 1, 2007