Flashback: 1998, 2001--more examples of sin finding people out

...and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23b

How embarrassing...as reported by Sun Media and published in The Edmonton Sun, February 11, 1998:

OTTAWA--A retired priest suffered a heart attack during a private showing in a Quebec strip bar, police said yesterday.

Jean-Paul Snyder died last Wednesday in the Champagne Room in Le Mandarin, a strip club in Mont Laurier, about 125 km northeast of Ottawa.

The 71-year-old priest, who was in his street clothes at the time, collapsed at about 10:30 p.m. The dancer, who performed for him in the private room and other club employees tried to revive him before the ambulance arrived.

"Snyder had a lengthy cardiac history," said said Quebec provincial police Const. Gilles Couture.

The priest was pronounced dead upon arrival at hospital.

Snyder retired from the priesthood in 1992 for "health reasons," said Ottawa Archdiocese spokesman Guy Levac.

Archbishop Marcel Gervais' first thoughts were for Snyder's family when he found out the circumstances surrounding the retired priest's death.

"If on occasion a person makes mistakes or shows a lack of judgment, that does not erase the good done in their life," Gervais said in a statement.

As reported by Associated Press and Canadian Press, and repoted in The Edmonton Sun, April 20, 2001:

Colleagues of a Russian professor, described as a rising star in international law, were shocked yesterday when told he died in Newfoundland after cocaine-filled balloons burst in his stomach.

Gennady Danilenko, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, was on his way to Detroit from Amsterdam on Sunday when he became gravely ill aboard a transatlantic flight.

The airliner was diverted to Goose Bay, Nfld., where Danilenko, 45, was taken to hospital. Doctors removed a dozen balloons from his body and he died Wednesday.

An autopsy revealed six of the cocaine-filled balloons had ruptured.

"We were shocked by his death," said Joan Mahoney, dean of the Wayne State law school.

100 years ago--Roman Catholic priests in Michigan settle their differences

A direct approach in resolving personal differences is often very effective, as with this example reported in the Edmonton Bulletin, April 13, 1923 (bold in original):

PRIEST KILLED BY ANOTHER AT KALAMAZOO

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Slayer Says He Was "Driven to Fury" by Alleged Ill-Treatment

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KALAMAZOO, Mich., April 12.--The Rev. Father Charles Dillon, 56, assistant rector of St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, shot and killed Rev. Father Henry O'Neill, rector of the church, as they sat at the dinner table tonight, then calmly went to the telephone and notified the police and coroner.

Dillon fired four shots, all of which took effect. As Father O'Neill fell dead, Dillon turned to the Rev. Father McCollough, the only witness of the tragedy, and handed him a phial containing holy oils with the request that he administer the sacrament of extreme unction at once.

According to a statement, the assistant rector is said to have told the police and county officers he was "driven to fury" by alleged ill-treatment at the hands of the dead priest. Rev. Father O'Neill was a graduate of Assumption college, Sandwich, Ontario.

A gun and holy oils for extreme unction are strange things to bring to the dinner table, which leads this blogger to use his Sherlockian detective powers and deduce that Rev. Dillon's act was premeditated.