MARYLAND
National Catholic Register
A question posed by the Netflix series is whether Sister Cathy Cesnik knew of a priest’s abuse – and whether that knowledge played a part in her murder.
Kathy Schiffer
A seven-part Netflix docu-series scheduled to air beginning Friday, May 19 will focus on priestly sexual abuse of high school students in Baltimore in the 1960s, and the subsequent murder of a 26-year-old nun who may have discovered the abuse.
“The Keepers” will no doubt titillate viewers with its sordid tale of sex and murder; but what it is not expected to do, say officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, is accurately reflect the Archdiocese’s efforts to deal with the abuse and to cooperate with the murder investigation of the nun.
The series will reportedly suggest a connection between the abuse cases and the death of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, S.S.N.D. – although the recent exhumation of the body of Fr. Joseph Maskell fails to substantiate that connection.
Does “The Keepers” Accurately Reflect the Archdiocese’s Role?
In their quest to produce a blockbuster exposé, the writers of “The Keepers” interviewed women who were sexually abused as high school girls in the 1960s and ’70s by Fr. Joseph Maskell, then chaplain of Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School. The victims allege that Fr. Maskell was involved in the death of Sister Cathy Cesnik, who once taught at the same school, and that there was a cover-up on the part of the Archdiocese – although they provide no evidence to support their claim. In fact, neither the abuse nor the suggestion that Maskell might be involved in the nun’s death were known to the Archdiocese or to the police until the 1990s.
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