Cleveland priest shot to death, then burned beyond recognition in his office
Cleveland police announced this morning that they had arrested a suspect for the murder of William Gulas, pastor of St. Stanislaus Church. But as Weblog filed this morning's report, they still hadn't named a motive.

At about noon Saturday, Gulas was shot in the chest and suffered a severe blow to the head, said the coroner. Then a fire (video) was set in his office to cover up the murder. Gulas's body was burned beyond recognition, and it took investigators a long time to discover the murder.

"Who would be so disrespectful of life?" asked Cleveland City Councilman Ed Rybka, one of Gulas's parishioners, in an interview with The Plain Dealer. "This is a holy person on holy ground at a holy time of year. This community will demand justice."

The motive may have been robbery. "Crime here has gotten worse," neighbor Tony Leanza told the Cleveland paper. "The church is all that keeps this corner peaceful."

But if it was for robbery, the murderer wasn't just evil; he was also stupid. Donations from weekend Masses are deposited on Mondays. Thus there would have been very little money at the church on Saturday morning. This is causing some folks to doubt the robbery motive.

Weblog expects a motive to be announced sometime today. Check Google News for updates.

Protestants aiding Voice of the Faithful "Throughout the last 12 months, as the Catholic Church has struggled with the crisis prompted by revelations that [Cardinal Bernard] Law and other bishops routinely kept sexually abusive priests on the job, Protestant ministers have been quietly reaching out, not to their fellow church leaders, but to embattled Catholic clergy and irate Catholic laypeople," The Boston ...