+ Elizabeth Ann Murphy

 

+ Elizabeth Ann Murphy (d. 02/26/25)

+Liz and I were fellow victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by our Catholic middle school teacher John Merzbacher (we and unfortunately among many other classmates).

And just a stone’s throw away from Merzbacher’s classroom, beginning when I was 13 years old, I was put through unimaginable emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of clergymen in the Our Lady of Good Counsel Church rectory.

The scars are deep and the lingering trauma lasts forever.

I don’t know, but I wonder if it’s possible for some within our church to have a sense of how much such experiences of abuse have lifelong impacts on the emotional health of such survivors.

One such impact is a never-ending and lingering distrust of men who hold “positions of power” within the hierarchical structure of the church . . .

Maybe these are subjects about which church leaders and bureaucrats, try as they may, but because of their obstinacy can’t ever really properly address? Maybe they aren’t able to have concern for things for which they’d rather just turn blind eyes, or perhaps about which they can never truly comprehend? I don’t know . . . , but these questions will forever perplex me!

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Liz was my friend: I knew her heart well, I knew she had great faith, and that she placed that faith in God, and not in men.

+Elizabeth: Rest in peace good and faithful servant!!

Liz’s funeral and the celebration of her life will take place at St. Francis Xavier Church, 13717 Cuba Road, Hunt Valley, MD, Saturday, March 8th at 1:00 p.m.

I will be there.

See Liz’s very poignant and heartbreaking obituary (with many references to her struggle with and within the Roman Catholic Church, and her own experience of abuse, recovery and hope) at the following link:

+Liz’s obituary:  https://www.peacefulalternatives.com/obituary/elizabeth-murphy

 
The article referenced in the attached photo: https://catholicreview.org/believe-us-survivors-express-anger-hope-following-release-of-attorney-generals-report/