Another Halloween ghost story...

Let the dead bury their dead.
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Shown above is an "ex-voto" painting commemorating the suicide of a local priest a few years ago - I painted the panel a few days after he committed suicide - and after having just learned that the priest's superiors had known about his history,  teen molestation accusations - and did nothing.  It is one of my favorite paintings ever.
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I don't know if my tale qualifies as a real ghost story, but what happened to me as I finished the painting was kind of creepy.  I knew the priest who had hanged himself.  He had been accused of murdering a funeral director and his assistant back in 2002.  The alleged motive was to silence the funeral director who was believed to have threatened to expose the priest's involvement in homosexual acts with adolescent boys.  The priest committed suicide but left a note claiming his innocence of the murders.  The exposure of his  homosexual involvement with teen boys may have been motive enough for the priest to take his own life.
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What kind of priest was he?
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The man was a good priest. Perhaps a bit doctrinaire, dogmatic and therefore rigid in his pastoral approach however. He loved being a priest.  He loved the cassock, wore it everywhere, and in the winter, he wore a cloak with golden frogs clasping it. He loved traditional trappings:  The hats and beanies and cape-lets and elaborate baroque vestments and man-lace.  He was orthodox in his spirituality, deeply devoted to Our Lady, and scrupulously faithful to the Roman rite - he was a Novus Ordo priest to be sure, yet totally traditional. Father also happened to be an impassioned homilist as well as moralist. I suspect he would have loved Savonarola. None of that is bad or wrong of course, although his zeal tended to alienate many - he came on pretty strong.
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When I first met him, he was wearing his winter cape, I thought he was kind of a fruitcake. After I got to know him, I still held that opinion, although I could see he was sincere and wanted to be a holy priest, and eventually I found him rather like-able. He had a good sense of humor, but there was something there that told me he craved affirmation, respect, and deep down, he just wanted to be liked. Human respect was very important to him - despite the fact he had so many critics amongst his congregation. Could it be that human respect became motive enough to murder someone who might have exposed his secret life, revelations which would ruin his orthodox facade? Maybe.  Father also loved guns and hunting, and he tended to be rather militant when it came to heretics and liberals - but was he capable of murder?  Personally, I think he could have been found guilty on all counts - but not necessarily damned.
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The ghost.
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As I finished adding the details to the painting, I considered adding some things to suggest his sexuality near the rosary in the snow,  as if they had fallen from his pockets.  Just as I began to paint the items in I felt a hand grasp my shoulder, as if to hold me back from proceeding.  A chill ran down my back and I sensed an interior warning to stop.  I turned quickly to see if anyone was behind me, but I was completely alone.  
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The next day at work I told a co-worker what had happened.  This man had great respect for the priest and could hardly believe the accusations against him, much less his suicide.  In fact, not a day or two after his death, my friend's mother had a dream of a priest coming towards her in church with a message for her son, "Tell him I'm okay."  It turns out my friend's mother had never met the priest nor had she heard of his suicide at that point.
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I no longer know what to think regarding the case, but I will continue to pray for the priest and the murder victims just the same.