BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Accused of Satanic Murder of Nun Possible Satanic Basis to Murder of Ohio Nun by Priest By Martin Barillas Spero News [Toledo OH] April 17, 2006 http://www.speroforum.com/blog/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=700 The trial of Reverend Gerald Robinson, a 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest, begins today in Toledo OH for the ritualistic murder of a nun, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, some 26 years ago. Jury selection starts today in a case that has galvanized the Catholic community of this Ohio metropolis for a quarter century. Rev. Robinson has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible life sentence if convicted. He has been on leave from the priesthood since 2004. The investigation of the murder had been stymied since 1980, but a letter from an alleged victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Robinson came to light when the Toledo leader of Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Claudia Vercellotti, forwarded it to the Ohio Attorney General. The alleged abuse victim had tendered the letter to diocesan officials in Toledo in 2003, having requested reimbursement for psychological counseling. The woman claimed to have been the childhood victim of Robinson, and also victimized by other priests in satanic sex rituals. The unidentified woman fingered Robinson as one of several priests who sexually molested her and forced her to participate in obscene rituals. Another woman and her husband filed suit against the diocese in 2005, also alleging sexual abuse and satanic rituals. The Pahl case was cold, even though Robinson had always been a prime suspect, until Vercellotti passed the victim's letter on to the Attorney General's office in September 2003 after having concluded that Catholic officials had been too slow to respond. Robinson has not faced any sexual abuse charges, however. Police subsequently requested the diocese to release all documents in Robinson's file and received three pages in return. It was only after a warrant was issued that the diocese released over 100 documents relating to the priest. According to reports, the local police came to believe that the diocese was less than forthcoming with its cooperation. A local priest and critic of the diocese, Rev. Stephen Stanberry, said that Bishop Leonard Blair had assured fellow priests in 2004 that his diocese had fully cooperated with investigators, however. Police and diocesan officials deny any complicity in stalling the outcome of investigation into this and other cases of alleged sexual abuse and rape on the part of clerics. A gag order issued by a Lucas County judge is cited by County prosecutors and Robinson's defense for refusing to comment further. Some observers cite the Roman Catholic Church's influence in the Toledo region, where one in four residents is Catholic, as a reason why investigations into alleged sexual abuse might have been placed on the back burner by police. The memory of the 71-year-old Sister of Mercy Margaret Ann Pahl remains fresh in the memory of many in Ohio, not least because of suggestions that evidence gathered at the crime scene indicates ritualistic motives to the grisly crime. Pahl's body was found covered with an altar cloth in a hospital chapel in Toledo in 1980. The killer had strangled and then stabbed his victim more than 30 times. The stabbing was consistent with the wounds that might have been inflicted by a letter-opener found in the priest's possession. Police considered the murder as ritualistic because of the position of the victim's body and other evidence. The nun's body had been positioned to suggest a sexual assault even though there was no other evidence of rape. Robinson officiated at the nun's funeral.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.