Priest jailed for sex abuse of a minor; claims he gave 11-year-old boy 'anatomy lessons'

[ccharles000]

Former Roman Catholic priest Desmond Laurence Gannon is finally going to do some hard time after largely getting away for serial sexual abuse of children. (Jonathan Turley):

Gannon, 79, was previously convicted of such abuse in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2003 but remarkably has served only one year in jail. The latest charge stems from 1968.
What is interesting is that he is claiming that he really did not know it was abusive to have such sexual contact with children at the time: "I thought it was less formal rather than inviting him into the presbytery, and that's all ... I won't say sexual abuse because at the time I didn't know what it was."

Turley notes that this pathetic, sick defense has been tried before - by former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland.
Weakland insists that he and other priests did not know it was a crime to have sex with children and thought they would not remember or they would "grow out of it."

In his book, "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church," Weakland writes: "We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature." That's right. Despite the daily stories of child abuse arrests and basic common sense, Weakland did not understand that raping choirboys was not actually a crime.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/11459/priest-jailed-for-sex-abuse-of-a-minor-claims-he-gave-11yearold-boy-anatomy-lessons

[Ken Burch]

1. "Anatomy lessons" Holy EWWWWWWWWWW..........

And the bastard has only served one year after FOUR previous convictions? Do they get the jury pools at Knights of Columbus meetings?

[muntrv]

3. Or it was Opus Dei, that Catholic secret society.

[vaberella]

2. I don't get this shit. I found old sciene teacher was also an abuser.

and I mean he was still an altar server. I remember seeing him go to mass every Sunday and do all the altar server duties.

I don't want to blame the church...but there's something wrong there.

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. "...but there's something wrong there."

Could be that whole "vow of celibacy for life" thing? :shrug:

[vaberella]

9. You're kidding me right? That's BS...you know that right?

Are you following your logic? You're saying by forced celibacy causes pedophiles and sexually assaulting children. I'm not buying that at all. I will say this...my teacher was a devout catholic and he was NEVER a priest. He was actually married with a kid---of course divorce since then but had girlfriends when I was student. Then I heard about him paying an old student of his...a student that was 10 years younger than me---so not in my sphere for sex. The kid was 14 and he was....well he's old. I was surprised to say the least.

[Petals]

12. That's like blaming compulsory K-12 education for teenage pregnancy and abuse by pedophile teachers

Wouldn't it be better to call for better supervision of people in positions of "trust"?

Next you'll tell me that home-schooling promotes incest.

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. "Next you'll tell me that home-schooling promotes incest."

Nah, let's leave the West Virginia stereotypes out of this. :evilgrin:

[shadowknows69]

4. W.........T.........F!!!!!

[mysuzuki2]

6. One thing I don't understand about sexual abuse by priests

is why the parents of the abused children didn't beat the living shit out of these guys. If someone had done that to me as a child, clergy or not, my father would have paid him a visit he would never have forgotten-they would have been happy to see the police arrive.

[Lars39]

7. They can hold your soul hostage.

Obedience to such authority is hard to buck.

[defendandprotect]

8. Still at it . . . after 2,000 years!!!

[LAGC]

10. The legacy and spirit of Christ lives on...

[ccharles000]

11. kick