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Satanist guilty in priest’s killing
Archbishop asks for clemency
A Satanist went on trial April 2 for the 1996 murder of a Catholic priest in the eastern town of Colmar, with the local archbishop calling for compassionate judgment.
David Oberdorf, a self-avowed Satanist, had admitted to stabbing Father Jean Uhl 33 times in a December 1996 attack. Archbishop Joseph Dore of Strasbourg, the diocese where Father Uhl’s parish of Saint Adelphe in Mulhouse is located, called for a show of mercy toward the accused killer, and said Oberdorf had reformed since the murder. Oberdorf also asked Father Uhl’s family for forgiveness. “My hope is that the justice you deliver will be merciful, despite everything,” Archbishop Dore told the court.
Prosecutors said Oberdorf had a pagan altar at his home and performed Satanic rituals there. According to local press reports, Oberdorf told police investigators that he was possessed by the Devil and “had a Satanic flash” before the killing.
Among the first acts by the court, the judges refused a request by Archbishop Dore to be named a civil party to the trial —a move which would have given him access to the full file on the case. The court said Archbishop Dore had not known Father Uhl and was only appointed archbishop a year after the murder. Archbishop Dore objected to the court’s decision, saying his position made him a father figure for the Catholic community and that as such he shared “its history, all its suffering, and its pain.”
After a week-long trial, Oberdorf was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.