CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer
Your voice: Timothy Leonard
For all its faults, the Catholic Church certainly has an uncanny facility for rising to the occasion. One such occasion was the funeral of the Rev. Stanley Doerger on Sept. 16.
Doerger had been accused of sexually abusing students at St. Rita School for the Deaf, where he was pastor from the early 1960s to the early '80s.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, without benefit of what the rest of the world would call due process, felt constrained by the new policies of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding priests who have been accused of sexual abuse to suspend Doerger from the ministry.
The funeral was a magnificent affirmation of how little we know for certain about the meaning of human life, yet how much we know about the need for love and forgiveness. St. Ignatius Church in Monfort Heights was overflowing with what appeared to be 1,000 people, many telling stories of how Doerger had laughed with them, cajoled them into working on projects, worked himself as an expert electrician, and inspired them.
Posted by kshaw at September 21, 2005 07:59 AM