As part of the church’s bankruptcy case, survivors — and now creditors — were allowed the opportunity to detail in open court how they were violated by priests.
The bishop waited inside the courthouse foyer for his turn through the metal detector. On a clipboard ledger, he jotted his name — “John McDermott,” omitting his honorifics — along with the time he was signing in, 9:32 a.m. on May 14, a Wednesday.
He had arrived alone.
McDermott, 62, wore a black shirt and a pectoral cross around his neck. A signifier of his status, the bulky, silver crucifix dangled near his abdomen from a chain.
When he was next to be screened, McDermott placed the cross into one of the gray plastic bins that ferry visitors’ belongings through an X-ray machine for inspection by a court security officer. He walked through the detector without setting off the machine, draped…
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