WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
Dianne Williamson
dwilliamson@telegram.com
The Rev. Donald J. Peters sat outside the crowded courtroom, his tall frame folded and hunched, as though single-handedly absorbing the pain of a parish in torment.
“This is one of the saddest days of my life,” he said softly. “But it’s also one of the most important. It’s about truth, which is a basic tenet of orthodox theology. … I truly believe that almost every person in that room feels the pain in a different way.”
He was referring to Room 24 of Central District Court, which was filled, quite literally, with a church divided. On one side sat those loyal to the Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad, 55, pastor on leave of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, now a criminal defendant in a bizarre sexual assault case. On the other side, supporters of the alleged victim sat in unity behind her parents, on wooden benches as unyielding as church pews.
On Thursday, Rev. Peters was waiting to take the stand as the star witness in a case that has pitted families against families, friends against friends and priest against priest. It’s a case rife with reference to demons and exorcism, a case that includes photographs of a woman bruised, battered and bitten, allegedly at the hands of a priest she had turned to for counseling.
Rev. Peters, once associate pastor under Rev. Abdelahad, would be called by the prosecution to testify about what he saw and heard in the pastor’s office, and his testimony would draw gasps from the crowd, many of them senior citizens who refuse to believe that the man known affectionately as “Father Mike” could abuse anyone. Father Mike, after all, had baptized their children. He reigned for years over a large, close-knit parish with a proud tradition. He was, quite simply, incapable of cruelty or violence.
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