Baltimore’s rally protest Catholic Church coverup of sexual abuse cases

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Post-Examiner

March 25, 2018

By Bill Hughes

On a brisk, Palm Sunday morning about 20 activists, carrying signs and posters, gathered at the Villa Assumpta on North Charles St. at Bellona Avenue in Baltimore County, MD. The Villa Assumpta is a retirement home, a convent for nuns run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. (SSND).

Back in the 1970s, Sister Eileen Weisman was the principal at the Catholic Community Middle School (CCMS), formerly Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Locust Point. It was a SSND school. One of the lay teachers under her supervision from 1972 to 1979, was the later convicted – sexual predator – John Merzbacher.

The protesters claim Merzbacher’s tenure was “a reign of terror” for many of his students – male and female alike. They insist Sister Weisman knew or should have known, about his serial sex abuses and other outrageous conduct, including repeatedly threatened students with a loaded handgun – and did nothing.

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