The Deacon's Bench
The Bowling Green woman accused of desecrating and defacing the St. Clement Catholic Church in July 2016 was found dead in her apartment on Monday, Aug. 22.
Pike County Coroner Jim Turner said in a Monday afternoon phone interview with the Bowling Green Times that he is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Linda Marie Howard, 54, of Bowling Green.
According to Turner, Howard appears to have died in an apparent suicide.
Fr. Bill Peckman, the pastor of St. Clement’s, posted this response on Facebook:
It has been a hard day. It has been a day of ‘what if’ and ‘if only’. I think to the recent gifts given to the parish of the icons of St Mary Magdalene and St Michael the Archangel and the premium we as Catholics put on forgiveness and mercy while understanding that spiritual warfare is all too real.
As I offer my rosary tonight for Ms. Howard and pray for her and her family it occurred to me that there is much to learn and those lessons will take some time to unpack. Our parish has been through a trauma and bore powerful witness to the Gospel values preached week in and week out. We walked on water during the storm by keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.
Related: Catholic church desecrated with human feces
I am proud of this parish. We did what was right. Things did not turn out as we hoped, but we gave powerful witness. I hope that many from the area who are looking to find a church more interested in binding the wounds of sin, neither ignoring them nor berating them, will think about looking at the Catholic faith. We’re not perfect nor are we looking for the perfect, we are looking for those who want to turn from sin and turn to God…who want to walk with us as we make forward movement on our pilgrim way.
I can’t but believe that God will make much good out of this entire tragedy. I said back when this first happened that I wanted this to be a moment of great evangelization. Nothing speaks more clearly of evangelization than mercy, the mercy especially expressed by the cross. We did that. Let’s finish the task and pray for Ms. Howard and her family…and continue to reach out actively for the lost
sheep.
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