DUBLIN — The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is investigating how a priest accidentally displayed a series of pornographic gay images during a presentation to parents of children preparing to receive First Holy Communion.
The priest, Rev. Martin McVeigh, insisted he didn’t know how the explicit images got on the memory stick he intended to use for his presentation to families at St. Mary’s Primary School in the Northern Ireland village of Pomeroy, according to CNN.
The leader of Ireland’s Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, issued a statement Monday admitting that “inappropriate imagery was inadvertently shown by a priest at the beginning of a PowerPoint presentation.”
The statement went on the say the material “was immediately removed from the screen” and “the priest has stated that he had no knowledge of the offending imagery.”
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“The archdiocese immediately sought the advice of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) who indicated that, on the basis of the evidence available, no crime had been committed.”
But angry parents are demanding that McVeigh be suspended from parish duties until the church determines who’s responsible.
The parents described how, at a March 26 meeting at the school, McVeigh inserted the memory stick, clicked open a folder — and unleashed a cavalcade of sexually explicit pictures of naked men.
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“He was visibly shaken and flustered. He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room,” the parents said.
Irish media outlets are also reporting that at least one child, said to be an eight-year-old, was at the meeting.
