guardian.co.uk,
Associated Press, Tuesday 3 April 2012
Parents who viewed the images were said to be 'horrified and distracted'. Photograph: Robert Davies / Alamy |
The Roman
Catholic Church in Ireland has said it is investigating how a priest offering a
presentation to parents on their children's upcoming confessions instead ended
up showing them a computer slideshow of gay porn.
The leader
of Ireland's four million Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, said the priest
involved insists he didn't know how the explicit images got on the memory stick
he intended to use for his Powerpoint presentation to families at St Mary's
Primary School in the Northern Ireland village of Pomeroy, County Tyrone.
Brady said
the priest, the Rev Martin McVeigh, "has stated that he had no knowledge
of the offending imagery" and is helping an internal church investigation.
McVeigh
said other church officials used the memory stick and he wanted an
investigation "so that what happened can be legitimately explained".
"I
don't know how it happened but I know what happened," McVeigh said.
That's not
good enough for St Mary's parents, who are demanding the priest's suspension
from parish duties until the church determines who's responsible. They withdrew
their children, mostly aged nine, from a planned Sunday service focused on the
children's upcoming first confessions and communions, major sacraments of the
church.
The parents
described how, at a 26 March meeting at the school, McVeigh inserted the memory
stick, clicked open a folder – and unleashed a cavalcade of sexually explicit
pictures of naked men.
"He
was visibly shaken and flustered. He gave no explanation or apology to the
group and bolted out of the room," the parents said.
Two other
school and church officials continued the communion discussion, they said,
"however the parents who viewed the pictures were horrified and
distracted". They said an eight-year-old child was also present.
After about
20 minutes, they said, McVeigh rejoined the meeting "and wrapped up by
saying that the children get lots of money for their holy communion and should
consider giving some of it to the church".
The parents
said they were "enraged that Father McVeigh has been entrusted with the
pastoral care of their children".
Church
officials arranged for another priest to oversee the children's confessions
this month but couldn't say whether McVeigh would oversee their First
Communions in May.
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