Aug 23, 2018 3 min read

It seems that we’ve been inundated by stories recently about how those we trust with our most vulnerable are allegedly shirking their duties.

In the past week, the Observer-Reporter’s front page has carried stories about the appalling sex abuse of thousands of children in Pennsylvania at the hands of priests in the Roman Catholic Church and a Donora personal care home’s owner who is accused of abandoning his residents.

These two stories run counter to what our priorities should be as a society. Children and the elderly – the most vulnerable among us – are the ones we should be protecting the most.

It’s almost too difficult to read and comprehend.

Decades of systemic abuse in the Diocese of Pittsburgh include the rape and molestation of children, acts that were allegedly covered up by church officials. The abusers were protected while victims were silenced. That story continues to develop as protesters rallied Monday outside the diocese’s downtown headquarters to demand changes within its structure.

Meanwhile, at Miller’s Corner Cottage in Donora, 13 residents were removed from the personal care home over the weekend when state officials shut it down for a litany of problems. The state Department of Human Services notified the facility July 2 it needed to fix 55 violations after its last license inspection in February, but things only got worse there over the past month.

The conditions inside the home “alarmed” Donora Borough solicitor Steve Toprani when he visited it Saturday. He found the home hot inside with interior doors blocked, medication not stored properly and a food supply that appeared to be limited.

A photo showing two empty wheelchairs in front of the facility was heartbreaking and evocative of the empty chairs some family members experience upon losing loved ones before the holidays. Except in this case, these seniors were losing their caregivers and, in some respects, their dignity.

Most appalling, though, was the apparent abandonment by the owner, Charles Miller of Greensburg, who could not be contacted Saturday afternoon when a few employees tried to reach him. Employees also told borough officials that their last paycheck had bounced.

But within this mess, there were some who did their best through an unbearable situation. While some employees left, others stayed knowing they wouldn’t be paid.

Those few employees who stayed to help the final 13 seniors remaining at the facility, which was licensed to house 80 people, should be lauded for their devotion to those residents. We need more people like them, especially during dark times like these.