New book details Catholics who showed mercy — not fear — to AIDS patients despite Church's stanc
Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Michael J. O’Loughin, author of “Hidden Mercy: Aids, Catholics, and the Untold Story of Compassion in the Face of Fear.”
Book excerpt: ‘Hidden Mercy’
By Michael J. O’Loughin
By the time Father Bill McNichols started working in AIDS ministry in New York, it felt to him that everyone assumed he was gay. So he just went with it, never denying the gossip about his sexuality. He eventually confirmed the rumors, so that young men with AIDS would know they had an ally. This honesty would eventually harm him. But for now, he saw it as important to his ministry that he be open about his sexual orientation.
His intuition proved to be correct. Sister Patrice Murphy, in her job overseeing the pastoral care department at Saint Vincent’s Hospital, said Father Bill was especially gifted in his AIDS chaplaincy precisely because of his own suffering. Among the hundred or so volunteers at the hospital Sister Patrice saw Father Bill as unique, because “he knows what it is to suffer, what it
