Joliet Diocese compromises on wording of woman’s grave marker

JOLIET (IL)
The Herald News

January 3, 2018

By Alex Ortiz

‘She supported priest sexual abuse victims’

Weeks after an initial request, Marguerite Ridgeway’s grave finally hosts a marker stating, “She supported priest sexual abuse victims,” after her years of advocacy and death in 2015.

Ridgeway’s son, Jack Ruhl, a professor of accountancy at Western Michigan University, sent a letter to the Diocese of Joliet in October requesting a marker be added to his mother’s grave which would read, “She supported priest rapist victims.”

The diocese took issue with the use of the word “rapist,” stating in a letter from diocese attorney Maureen Harton that their “concern must be with the many people who visit Assumption Cemetery with the expectation that their quiet time with their loved ones will be peaceful, tranquil and free of stress and anxiety.”

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