He refused to apologize. Sad, but not surprising. Wonder when exactly "the church" found out and how little they did to stop it. Pathetic.
Abusive priest Gannon gave boy an 'anatomy lesson'
A FORMER Melbourne priest who sexually abused young boys over an 18-year period from 1958 refused to apologise for indecently assaulting an 11-year-old for fear of a compensation claim being made against the church, a court has heard.
Retired Catholic priest Desmond Laurence Gannon, 79, told police last year that he was giving the boy an anatomy lesson when he took him from school and assaulted him in 1968. "I thought it was less formal rather than inviting him into the presbytery and that's all," he said.
Gannon, who previously served across Melbourne including in Macleod, Ashburton, Northcote and Kilmore, yesterday pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawful and indecent assault.
Full story here . . .
4 comments:
First of all, of course this was horribly sick and wrong.
Second of all, I find it interesting that even though you claim to be against all religions, you primarily attack Christians, and even appear to single out Catholics.
My conclusion? The Catholic is church is the most true of all religions, which is why you have to hit it the hardest.
I don't "claim to be against all religions".
I don't believe in a "god" or "gods".
If a religious institution does good (feed the hungry, house the poor) I will gladly give them kudos.
When they cover up the rape of children, oppress minorities, or the like, they get no kudos.
I'm surrounded by an enormous and fairly evangelical Catholic university, a large Catholic campground or some such, a Monastery, and countless "you kill babies" bumper stickers. Yeah...amazing that Catholics get noticed by me. Amazing.
Most true of all religions? That was a good one. Thanks.
Oh, I just want you to remember that when you finally discover God so you know which church to go to. ;) Don't sit near our pew--my kids are so fidgety.
I completely understand your disgust with the priest-scandal and, trust me, I share it. However, I think it's important to separate church teaching from the actions of individuals, no matter what their position in the church is.
Someone once used the analogy that compared the teachings of the church to a beautifully written piece of music. Some musicians will play the music perfectly, but others will play the same piece and make it sound terrible. But no matter how poorly the music that comes out of the instruments sounds, the original piece of music itself is still beautiful. Does that make sense to you? I know you don't believe it, but I just want you to understand that's where I'm coming from.
And back to the priests--yes, we have discovered that many of them in recent times were abusive and I'm grateful the situation has been uncovered. I can't express how disappointed and horrified I have been by the whole mess.
BUT in all fairness, there are many, many more good and holy priests who have spent their lives in service to others who are being lumped in with these terrible men. (I personally know dozens of them.) Lately, we have increasingly heard about SCHOOL TEACHERS who have sexually abused children, yet there is no public persecution of school teachers in general.
Why? Because common sense tells us that it's not the teaching profession that it the source of the problem. The same goes to the priesthood.
no matter what their position in the church is. .
For years the position was to cover it up and move the child rapist to another Parrish without TELLING ANYONE what the priest had done.
But no matter how poorly the music that comes out of the instruments sounds, the original piece of music itself is still beautiful..
Problem is that the song was written horribly from the start. It has always been wrong.
Lately, we have increasingly heard about SCHOOL TEACHERS who have sexually abused children, yet there is no public persecution of school teachers in general.
There is no need for public persecution because there is no establishment hiding and lying for these teachers. They were caught, prosecuted, and convicted.
We never got a fair shot at the thousands and thousands of priests because the church spent so much time and MONEY covering it up.
Because common sense tells us that it's not the teaching profession that it the source of the problem. The same goes to the priesthood..
The same doesn't apply because teachers aren't required to take a completely insane and unnatural vow of celibacy.
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