The Keepers

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A good friend recommended the Net-Flix Documentary "The Keepers" to us regarding Father Joseph Maskell of the Catholic Church in Baltimore.

The first three episodes chilled me to the bone.

The rest of it made me want to throw up.

So...

...I highly recommend it.

What is odd about it is that I am of the age that can clearly recall the power of the priest back in those days.

As a child who grew up in the Catholic school I had been taught, by my parents, and by the parents of all my friends, that the nuns and the priests were to be absolutely respected as they were closer to God.

That's just the way it was!

Now, I did come through unscathed.

I never suspected that anything was ever amiss. The priest who ran the parish through most of those days was actually a good man, as far as I was concerned. (Other people may have different recollections, but there certainly were never any accusations against him).

Certainly nothing as wild as what happened in the Documentary.

I got seriously whipped by the nuns, for years.

I felt I deserved it.

(Big mouth).

Yet, I also never told my parents about any of it because I would have lost that argument. If the nuns or priest thought I needed a beating...

...well...then I did.

As I began watching I actually felt a need to protect the church in my mind.

"So, Maskell was a bad guy," I thought.

But that's not how it worked back then.

There was abuse.

The abuse was reported.

The media didn't believe it.

The law didn't help the abused.

And then the part that made me want to 🤢

The church buried it.

Now, I'm not giving anything away.

The documentary is terrifically put together. The women, who lived through it (but who suffered mightily) were amazing to give of their time and to lay it all out.

Watch it.

And then remember:

Organized religion has very little to do with God.

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