April 18, 2006

Priest charged in 40-year-old rape

PENSACOLA (FL)
Pensacola News Journal

William Rabb
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

A Catholic priest who retired to Pensacola has been charged with the rape of young girl almost 40 years ago in the Boston area.

The Rev. Gerard McMahon, 70, was stripped of his priesthood March 30 after the local Catholic diocese was told that charges were pending against him in Foxborough, Mass., a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Monday.

McMahon has had no official capacity since retiring here in the early 1990s, said Peggy DeKeyser, spokeswoman for the local diocese.

He filled in occasionally at services, funerals and events when other priests were out of town or unavailable, but he now is barred from that, she said.

Posted by kshaw at April 18, 2006 07:06 AM