Posted on 12/18/2009 11:18:06 AM PST by Alex Murphy
The priest who shook the hand and gave character evidence on behalf of a convicted sex offender has left his post of parish priest in Castelgregory.
Fr Séan Sheehy, who met Bishop of Kerry Bill Murphy this morning, had said yesterday he did not accept the unanimous verdict of a jury that found Danny Foley guilty of sexually assaulting a 24-year-old woman in Listowel, Co Kerry, on June 15, 2008.
The priest said he had no regrets about shaking hands with Danny Foley of Meen in Listowel as the 35-year-old waited to be sentenced for his crime.
He felt there could have been a miscarriage of justice, adding juries had also been known to convict innocent people.
Fr Sheehy offered to withdraw from his work in the parish of Castlegregory in Kerry and the Bishop of Kerry accepted his offer which takes effect from today.
Bishop Murphy had earlier apologised to the victim, and paid tribute to her courage in coming forward.
Meanwhile, the National Women's Council today said the scenes witnessed in the court before the sentencing have no place "in civilised society".
This immediately followed this news on Fr. Sean Sheehy, which began with these words:
THE priest who gave a glowing character reference for a man convicted of sex abuse has insisted he would do it again.And last night the Bishop of Kerry was forced to apologise to the victim for the priest's support for her attacker.
There were extraordinary scenes in a Kerry court earlier this week as up to 50 people queued to shake hands with sex offender Danny Foley, a man the judge accused of telling "lie after lie" to the court before being convicted by a unanimous jury.
Fr Sean Sheehy, of Castlegregory, Co Kerry, gave a favourable character reference on behalf of Foley, of Meen, Listowel, after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman in the town last year.
(snip)
An unrepentant Fr Sheehy said he stood by his comments and the fact that he shook the sex abuser's hand in court, saying he wanted to "let him (Foley) know he was not alone".
(snip)
Fr Sheehy also reiterated his support for the sex offender.
"I mean, it's a horrible situation to be in the dock as a prisoner, just sitting with his prison officers," he said. He said that he didn't know the victim but if he did he would have shaken her hand too.
He added that he believed Foley's sentence was "extremely harsh".
"I would go again as a character witness -- I would say the same thing about this person and I would say the same thing about reasonable doubt given the circumstances and given the situation," he said.
"The evidence that she (the victim) said she was quite blurry about a lot of things -- and, as I said, both were under the influence of alcohol which definitely blurs everything."
Fr Sheehy said he did not regret his court support for Foley and his family who he has known for years.
"I didn't go (to court) to represent the Church or anyone else," he said. "I went as a neighbour and I was more than happy to do that."
You also didn't mention that the fiancée of Danny Foley affirmed that she still planned to marry him. (mentioned in that article)
And, of course, you didn't bother to mention that up to 50 people queued to shake hands with Foley.
Any reason for omitting those statements out of that article you cited, Alex?
Why include them? They do nothing to slander the Catholic Church.
I’m curious, are clergymen (Catholic, Protestant or otherwise) who minister to the condemned on death rows and accompany them to the death chambers also to be ridiculed for letting the condemned know that they are not alone?
Only Catholic ones.
How could they be called Christian, since they go and sit and dine among the sinners, the prostitutes and the tax collectors?
Oh...wait--
31 And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. 32 And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. 34 Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
36 Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. 37 Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? 39 Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? 40 And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.
41 Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. 44 Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? 45 Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.
You know, I clearly remember reading on this forum just a few hours ago that anti-Catholic threads were only posted every three weeks or so and this is at least the second one TODAY.
Roughly five in the past 100 hours or so.
In other words...roughly daily.
Keep in mind, the Gospels really aren’t that important.
If only Paul had written one.
I think they are taught in YOPIOS class how to round numbers to their favor.
I recall not long ago being told that a certain quote could be found on THOUSANDS of Catholic websites, the truth was that the quote was a fabrication (they tried to pass it off as “fake but accurate”) and didn’t exist on a single Catholic website. So, what they do is take the number ZERO and insert it into “Machen’s Magical YOPIOS Multiplying Machine” and PRESTO, out pops the number THOUSANDS.
markomally:
I can say that I know this priest personally. He is an outstanding priest. He is an Irishman who was ordained for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and worked here for about 35 years before retiring and moving back home to Irleand.
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