Friday, October 23, 2009

Pray For Chatham, NJ

From MSNBC:

CHATHAM, N.J. - A Roman Catholic priest was found slain Friday in the rectory of his northern New Jersey parish, and authorities were searching for his killer.

Preliminary autopsy results confirmed that the Rev. Ed Hinds was a homicide victim, said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi. No one has been arrested, and authorities said they would not discuss possible motives.

No one had been arrested, and police said they would not discuss possible motives.
....

"The fact is that this was a community leader whose arms were wide open to downtrodden," he said. "Maybe one of those individuals was involved. That kind of generosity is preyed upon."


Fr. Hinds' parish community and indeed the surrounding community is surely shocked and alarmed. Elizabeth Kaeton serves as rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul in Chatham and is presently away in Atlanta, Georgia. She probably knows Fr. Hinds. She and her parishioners will be affected by this terrible tragedy. A priest serving in the church that I attend now was murdered in the parish hall some years ago, and, although I was not a member of the church at the time, the entire community here in Thibodaux was in shock.

Please pray for Fr. Hinds' family and the parishioners of his church and for all those who knew him and loved him. Pray for the people of the town of Chatham and for the safety of the clergy and all the residents of Chatham.

H/T to MadPriest for the story.

9 comments:

  1. How sad. Prayers, yes. I know where Chatham is, as we lived in Morristown, NJ for several years in the 1990s.

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  2. I think Elizabeth is home - how terrifying

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  3. I believe that Chatham is even smaller in population than Thibodaux, and the murder here rocked the whole town. It's particularly shocking when a priest is murdered on church property - a place of sanctuary.

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  4. I agree, Mimi. It's bad enough when someone is murdered, but there's just something even more creepy about an ordained person being murdered on church property. Prayers for all touched by this tragedy.

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  5. How terribly sad. I will definitely pray.

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  6. There are actually two Chathams (Chatham Borough and Chatham Township) that adjoin each other and have a combined population of around 18,000. It's a quiet bedroom community with a median household income over $100,000. The sad lesson here is that no place is immune from violent crime. Prayers ascending for Father Hinds and his parishioners, and certainly for our sister Elizabeth and all the other clergy in that community.

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  7. Paul, I changed the title of my post. The two combined are close in population to my city, and I know how the folks here were affected by the murder of the priest. Ours is a relatively safe place, too, but violence can strike anywhere.

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  8. The great evil in this is found in these words:

    "The fact is that this was a community leader whose arms were wide open to downtrodden," he said. "Maybe one of those individuals was involved. That kind of generosity is preyed upon."

    The loss of hope. It whispers in earnest what we say jokingly, "No good deed goes unpunished."

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