Priest in gay porn probe leaves parish

[JI7]

Source: cnn

Father Martin McVeigh has admitted he destroyed a memory stick containing "inappropriate imagery" ahead of a church investigation into reports he accidentally showed pictures of naked men to parents of children preparing for their First Holy Communion.

He said: "After the images were inadvertently shown, I immediately removed the memory stick from the laptop. In my shock and upset and in my concern to ensure that the images would never be shown again, I destroyed it later that evening."

McVeigh described the past month as "the most difficult" of his life and said he would be taking a break.

"In the hope of bringing resolution and healing to the division and pain within the parish, I have taken the decision to ask Cardinal Brady to allow me to leave the parish of Pomeroy and to take sabbatical leave," said McVeigh, adding: "The memory of this awful episode will remain with me for the rest of my life."

Brady said he accepted McVeigh had no advance knowledge of the pornography.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/29/world/europe/ireland-priest-gay-porn/index.html

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at first i thought the priest was in the porno

[lunasun]

1. at first i thought the priest was in the porno

howabout it CNN another misleading headline

[jberryhill]

2. Umm, I have a question

Were they pictures of naked men, or "gay porn"?

Now, as Father McVeigh had these pictures, we might assume that he is gay. But "gay porn" and "pictures of naked men" don't strike me as the same thing.

[JI7]

3. he claims to not have known about the porn and the cardinal said he believes him

[jberryhill]

6. That's not what I understood

Looking at the text of the story, that is ambiguous.

The words, at least as far as I could tell, are consistent with his lack of knowledge that he had the wrong stick - i.e. he had no advance knowledge that those were the pictures he was about to show to the group.

He then went and destroyed the stick, but it's not as if he's denying they were his pictures outright.

Or did I miss something?

Still, my question is more about the type of images, and how it comes out as "gay porn" in the already messed up headline.

[chollybocker]

7. Presumably, these were not images

of DaVinci's Vetruvian Man, nor photos of Michaelangelo's statue of David.

But keep digging; reality will eventually slap you in the face.

[jberryhill]

8. Okay, but

If a woman is looking at a picture of a naked man, is she looking at "gay porn"?

If a man looks at the same picture, then does it become "gay porn"?

[chollybocker]

10. "Okay, but".... Who, exactly, are you defending here?

Imagining is not thinking.

[jberryhill]

20. Who am I defending?

I'm asking a question about writing style and accuracy of word usage.

Who am I defending? Wtf? Can you read?

[Tunkamerica]

11. I only look at solo lesbian porn

or bisexual porn that is MF

[joshcryer]

14. LOL, wait, what?

Bisexual porn that is MF?

[Tunkamerica]

15. Well you can't tell from pictures or videos, but there's always the chance that one or both of the

members is bisexual.

M=male

F=Female (maybe that was the confusion)

[joshcryer]

17. Yeah, I knew MF, it was the bisexual part that got me.

Just really fascinating to be honest. I suppose sex talk isn't allowed here and I'm still burnt by my latest hide, so I'll refrain from getting in to more off topic "details" here.

Still, interesting way to phrase it. And I hear ya.

[jberryhill]

21. You never look at anything else?

Even while driving?

[marble falls]

19. Good point.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Hey, if he wants to look at naked men, more power to him...

Nothing wrong with that.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. Destroyed it, huh?

Interesting.

[caseymoz]

9. I actually think he might be innocent.

Somebody might have switched the memory stick, or tampered with the hard disk file. Or actually hacked the laptop.

Hell, if it happens to Iranian nuclear scientist, it can happen to a Parish priest. I'm thinking there's a lot of people pissed off at the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland now.

I'm thinking also the pictures were probably more extreme than just naked men.

[Tunkamerica]

12. I wonder what his brother Timothy would say

[caseymoz]

29. Now that's almost a pun.

Except unfunny.

[Tunkamerica]

31. Almost as unfunny as speculating about a priest's porn collection?

[caseymoz]

36. The comeback is worse that the pun.

Your really dying here, you know. I'd quit while you're ahead.

[chollybocker]

16. Yuh.

Catholic priests are EXACTLY like nuclear scientists.

WTF ??? Did you just compare...? WTF is wrong with y...? Whatever. You go with that.

[caseymoz]

27. I think the word you wanted was "duh."

No, I'm not saying nuclear scientists are EXACTLY the same, and "duh" would be the biggest word you know if you thought I meant that. Either that, or you're trolling. Given your use of caps, multiple periods, and triple questions marks, it could be either.

For the purposes of the narrow case of possibly having a memory stick switched. Yes, priests might be compared to Iranian Nuclear scientists, because both invited the ire of the world and sabotage.

For anything else? No. Are you going to press this issue now and make yourself look even dumber?

Also, gay porn, or pictures of naked adults, isn't child porn, so unlike priests we usually hear about, he's not accused of doing anything criminal. Or are you saying there's no difference between homosexuality and pedophilia? Are you saying he deserves contempt because he might be gay?

Understand, I'm an atheist heathen. Ex-Catholic. And if you look at my posting history, I'm one of the biggest opponents of the RCC on this board and on DU 2. In this case? I'd say innocent till proven guilty.

[snooper2]

24. Or he was pulling one off an hour before in the confessional

And just forgot it was still there..

I mean, once you've seen one memory stick you've seen them all right

[caseymoz]

30. I'm thinking that like me

They were probably kept in the same drawer.

Which could also cast suspicion on other priests in the parish. Or any traveling priests.

As I said in a different post, it seems difficult to me open your porn slide show instead of your PowerPoint presentation. It would seem to me if he were looking by file, he would remember the name of his porn file or folder and stay away from it when he had company.

Since he let it all hang out where it could obviously do him a lot of damage, this suggests it wasn't his, but probably another priest.

And, yes, initially I believe him when he says he's traumatized by it.

[yellowcanine]

26. His action in destroying the memory stick suggests otherwise.

If someone switched the memory stick it presumably would not have had the other content on it the priest was intending to use. But if not it would have.....

Plus a laptop also disappeared soon after.........


Doesn't look good for the stick priest.

[caseymoz]

28. I don't know. Just seems difficult to me

. . . to bring up jpgs of gay porn instead of your Power Point presentation. I've never once gone to bring up my ODT file and activated a gif or jpg instead. Never once. Yes, it's a RC priest, not the most technical person, but these programs are made to be used by people who aren't technically savvy. And I think it's unlikely that he would forget the name of his porn file.

There is another possibility for the computer disappearing (and they only said a laptop was missing). The porn belonged to another priest at the Parish. That's why the file was misnamed or disguised. And the other priest is the one who made the computer disappear.

My memory of Catholic rectories is that things went missing all the time, from back when I was a member of that church and not an atheist. And I could see a "good" priest (that is, so sexually repressed he needs a haz-mat suit to even read the word "sex&quot completely destroying that stick after being that shocked. I mean, before the world rediscovered their pedophilia, they completely unashamed of being censors and book burners. Again, my memory of the Catholic clergy is that most of them are like that, and a few are child molesters.

I'll remind you, though, gay porn, and/or adult nudity is not child porn. This guy isn't accused of doing anything illegal. If anything, he's done something that casts shame on him. If it's adult porn, in wider society, at most it's embarrassing and not illegal.

[yellowcanine]

32. Unless the "wrong file" was adjacent to his ppt and he clicked on it by accident.

I have done that actually. And depending on his settings, sometimes just scrolling over a file name will open it. I can see it happening.

I don't think legality is at issue here unless there was child porn involved. Again, I think destroying the memory stick raises some serious questions - such as what other files were there which he did not want anyone to see? Sorry but I don't buy the story that he was just so upset he destroyed the stick. The normal reaction if he truly did not put that file on there would be to give the stick to an IT person to try and identify the files on there and who might have been the owner. Digital photos have information embedded in them which might identify the camera, for example. I also don't buy total computer illiteracy. If he is using ppts and flash drives he is not a complete novice computer wise. I think he destroyed it to protect himself from further embarrassment or possibly worse. The disappearance of the laptop fits into that narrative also, unfortunately for him.

[caseymoz]

34. You've never seen the "squash the spider"

reaction to porn before? Apparently not. I have, and not only in Catholic clergy. And the reason why his superior believes him? Because the Bishop could understand doing exactly that and it's absolutely proper by the church that he do it.

You really don't know Catholic dogma and doctrine if you don't think an innocent, devout priests wouldn't destroy porn even if it meant destroying evidence that could exonerated him. Nor do you understand his emotional state if you think he have just would have erased only that file if he were innocent.

I want to make this clear: everything he says is probably a lie, but everything he says is also plausible. Besides any emotional revulsion he may have had, there's the little matter that if he keeps that file on the computer, he leaves other people in danger of committing mortal sin. For an honest, devout priest, his reputation would be secondary to preventing this, and his superior knows that.

You think I'm making that up? Pope Pius said Ex Cathedra that it was better a woman die resisting a rape than give in, and at the same time, he canonized a girl who did just that. Because the loss of chastity, under any circumstances, so damages the soul. Pius has been very influential. That attitude hasn't change for higher Catholic clergy.
He's probably the main reason now for the Church's unbending opposition to birth control.

Why didn't Father McVeigh just erase that file if he was innocent? Besides pure disgust and outrage, what if it wasn't the only one with porn? That means that every file he or anyone else examines puts them in grave danger of mortal sin. He couldn't have it.

Therefore, knowing this, I can't attack his story on the grounds that the only possible motive he could have is to protect wrong doing.

I also can't attack his story because a computer disappeared. Rectories are robbed all the time and a lap book would be a favorite target. (The Bishop also knows this.)

So he can point to a file and click, and he can plug in a memory stick right-side up. That's as much evidence as we have of his being tech savvy. Whether he could operate Powerpoint competently is unknown from this story, but his competence in that is questionable.

But from that evidence you say he must be tech savvy. Okay, I'll go with your theory anyway. However, then for your scenario to work, he has to be tech stupid, too.

First, he keeps his porn in the same folder as his ppt. I'm betting when you clicked on the wrong file, it probably wasn't your porn because if you had any of that, it would be in a completely different folder so couldn't accidentally open it in front of the wrong person. So, it seems that at manipulating his incendiary files, he's utterly stupid.

The setting you describing is not the default. If anything, it's one a real geek would prefer. That is, except when he's a priest who has a cache of porn lying around in the wrong file. Your scenario requires him to be both tech competent and incompetent.

As I said, perhaps everything he's saying is a lie, but it's also extremely plausible.

And that's the larger irony of the Catholic Church. The Oath of Chastity so distorts human behavior that you can't tell the perverts from the chaste.

[yellowcanine]

37. Anything is possible but I still think he is is a cassock on fire liar.

He didn't necessarily do the settings on the computer - particularly if it were a computer paired with a particular projector and shared by a bunch of people - each presenter brings their own flash drive. Lots of classrooms are set up that way anymore. As for folders, you can be tech savvy enough to use a flash drive but not tech savvy enough to have folders on the flash drive. A little tech knowledge can be a dangerous thing, particularly if one is inclined to carry naughty pictures around on your flash drive.

[Skittles]

18. and THIS religion LOVES telling women what to do / what not to do

[marshall]

22. Gay porn vs pictures of naked men

I assume the difference between the two is that porn depicts the men having sex, whereas the other could be construed as art or even medical photos.

I wonder how many pictures he had to show before he realized he had the wrong memory stick? Wouldn't one have been enough to know it's time to change sticks?

[ccavagnolo]

23. gay porn

i think having "pictures" (plural) of naked men, constitutes gay porn. i tried really hard to think of a situation where a lot of naked images (male or female) would not be considered porn and could only think of a nudists weekend retreat photo album (but even for some, this is porn).

[hedgehog]

25. More here:

http://www.clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2012/04/further-meeting-to-be-held-about-gay.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0429/priest-apologises-for-displaying-indecent-images.html

[Psephos]

35. Yet if the priest goes to the health club and takes a shower, there's no issue.

Oogabooga!! Pictures of naked men!

Never knew we had so many reactionaries here.

[tawadi]

38. 'sabbatical leave'?

Then what? Transferred to another parish to 'practice' again?