Late Catholic priest who stabbed nun to death will get funeral Mass

By Kantele Franko And John Seewer
HamiltSpectator
July 5, 2014

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4617269-late-catholic-priest-who-stabbed-nun-to-death-will-get-funeral-mass/

Rev. Gerald Robinson listens as the verdict is read finding him guilty of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

Sister Margaret Ann Pahl is shown in this undated file photo.

COLUMBUS, Ohio A Roman Catholic priest convicted of stabbing and strangling a nun 34 years ago in a hospital chapel will receive a funeral Mass, a church official said Saturday.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson remained an ordained priest after his conviction and his services will follow the usual protocol for a diocesan priest's funeral, the Rev. Charles Ritter, administrator for the Diocese of Toledo, said in a statement.

Robinson, 76, died Friday. He had been serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life in what church historians have characterized as the only documented case of a Catholic priest killing a nun. He was arrested 24 years after the nun's death and found guilty in 2006 of stabbing and strangling Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at a Toledo hospital where they both worked.

Robinson had been in a hospice unit since the end of May after suffering a heart attack.

Robinson and Pahl, 71, had worked closely together at the hospital, where he was a chaplain and she was caretaker of the chapel. He presided at her funeral in Massachusetts.

Prosecutors blamed the murder on Robinson's simmering anger over what he considered to be Pahl's domineering ways, saying their relationship was strained and that Pahl was upset over the shortening of Good Friday services a day before she was killed.

Robinson continued to maintain his innocence.

"Whether in the eyes of God, Father Robinson was or was not guilty of this crime, I do not know," Ritter said in his statement. "I do know that he is the work of God's hands, as are we all."

The statement said funeral arrangements were pending.