After the column, an unexpected message

Of the many phone calls, voice-mails and e-mails I received after my Monday column on the latest abuse scandal plaguing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, one was especially touching.

The caller wanted to thank me for the nice things I had written about him.

That would be the Rev. Monsignor Joseph McLoone. He’s the longtime head of St. Katharine Drexel Church in Chester. And he’s been tapped by Cardinal Justin Rigali to temporarily serve as pastoral administration at St. Joseph’s Parish in Downingtown.

Or, as he put it, he'll be "going from Chester to Chester County."

St. Joseph's, of course, was the parish headed by Monsignor William Lynn, who now has been placed on administrative leave by the archdiocese after being charged with endangering children in the latest abuse case involving several other archdiocesan priests.

It also happens to be my parish.

Monsignor McLoone wanted to thank me for my blog yesterday, in which I updated the story with news that he would be headed to Downingtown.

“I am looking forward to seeing you in the pews,” he said.

That makes two of us.

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