judgment day

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 12, 2006

When someone behaves like a beast, he says: "After all, one is only human." But when he is treated like a beast, he says: "After all, one is human." -- Karl Kraus

A Toledo jury, after due deliberation, decided that Fr. Gerald Robinson was only human.

The superior of the religious community to which Robinson's victim had belonged issued a response.

Sister Marjorie Rudemiller, president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Regional Community of Cincinnati -- which includes Toledo --read a written statement at a Mercy Hospital press conference this afternoon.

Without mentioning Robinson by name, Sister Rudemiller -- who did not personally know Sister Margaret Ann Pahl -- thanked the police, the prosecutor's office, the witnesses, and the jury, whose decision she said she respected.

"We have prayed for truth to prevail and for a fair and just trial. The jury has spoken, and we respect their decision," she said. "God's grace enables us to forgive the person who caused her death."

A pretty good statement, under the circumstances. It doesn't gloat. It doesn't strike poses of grief or vindictiveness. It expresses sober respect for the efforts of the jurymen and the other parties who performed often-unpleasant duty. It locates the incident in a frame of Christian faith by the mention of forgiveness -- not as an exercise in self-congratulation, but as something God's grace makes possible.

Toledo Blade photo