Priest sentenced for violent attack on church soloist

[Bluebear]

This poor woman...he choked her until she started praying, then he suddenly stopped and fled.

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The Rev. George Chaanine was sentenced today to four to 12 years in prison for attacking a woman at Our Lady of Las Vegas church. Chaanine denied he sexually assaulted the woman and offered an apology and a rambling statement about his feelings for her before he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs, court information officer Michael Sommermeyer said.

Chaanine pleaded guilty to a felony, battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial harm, in exchange for prosecutors dropping other charges in the case, including attempted murder and sexual assault.

A 54-year-old worker at the Roman Catholic church accused Chaanine of hitting her in the head with a wine bottle, stomping on her hand and groping her Jan. 26 at the church on Alta Drive. She suffered a broken hand and needed 20 metal staples to close the gash in her head.

"He loved her," Chaanine's court-appointed lawyer, Jeff Banks, said later. "His emotions got the better of him. It was the biggest mistake of his life and he's going to have to come to grips with it."

http://www.lvrj.com/breaking_news/10951016.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/01/america/NA-GEN-US-Priest-Assault.php

[silverojo]

1. "He loved her"?

Funny way of showing it.... :mad:

[Common Sense Party]

2. Love's weird...y'know? nt

[monmouth]

3. Singing off key could have been really dangerous.....eom

[flordehinojos]

4. sexual repression battling his feelings for someone he probably loved or desired and not knowing wha...

to do with his sexually repressed feelings coming ashore ... the poor man (roman collar and all) went crazy probably seeing in the woman the devil of a sexually desired object knowing that sexuality must be repressed, repressed, repressed for him as a priest of the church and a minister of God.

The catholic church is just going to have to, at some point, come to terms with the fact that human sexuality is a fact, part and parcel of our totality as human beings, and that it is much healthier to admit it and let it be part of the human being inside the priest; rather than saying, "feel horny? take a cold shower!" or, "you lusted after someone? go say three rosaries for your penance."

[malaise]

5. Smeone clearly struck

the wrong note here. Poor man could not 'celibate' her singing.