It was the same every night. A list of names was posted on the bedroom door of the Rev. Richard Daschbach, a revered Catholic priest in Asia who’d trained and been ordained decades earlier by his religious order, the Society of the Divine Word, at its Techny grounds near Northbrook.
The child at the top of the roster knew it was her turn to share the lower bunk with the elderly priest and another elementary school-age girl.
Daschbach was idolized in the remote enclave of East Timor where he lived, largely for his role in helping save lives during the tiny nation’s bloody struggle for independence.
So the girls never spoke of the abuse they suffered. They said they were afraid they would be banished from the shelter that the 84-year-old priest from Pennsylvania had established decades ago for abused women, orphans, and other destitute children.
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