On His Most Venal Eminence, the Oleaginous Ordinary of Baltimore, William Lori

Introduction

It started in Brooklyn. Actually, it was listening to my lovely friend J., before “Googling it” was a norm, that catalyzed my interest in the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. J. a big, good-looking gentle giant sat near me and my three young children in the pews at Mass every week. He had found out that I was some kind of writer, and it quickly became his habit to accost me with a short stack of photocopied press releases and information sheets he clutched like a holy scroll in his hand to update me on developments in the effort to pass the Child Victims Act in our state’s capital and dispatches out of the Vatican and such. I believe J. was attending VOTF (Voice of the Faithful) and SNAP (Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests) meetings semi-regularly during these years. I must note that it was the way some of our fellow pew-sitters turned away when he tried to talk to them about the clergy sex abuse crisis and other Catholic matters that intensified my wish to hear what had had to say and read my copies of his ‘scroll du semaine.’ But it wasn’t just that; I was a teacher and a writer. I was the mother of three young children. I cared too much about children, the truth, justice and my Catholic faith. J. has passed on to his “eternal reward,” as they say, but he still whispers in my ear. It was through J. first became aware of William Lori, circa 2002. J. had family who worshiped in the Diocese of Bridgeport. “Lori was sent in to handle…