Fr. Joseph M. Ganter
First named as accused in the 8/14/2018 PA Grand Jury Report. In 2008 an 80-year-old man told the diocese that Ganter sexually abused him when he was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Athanasius in West View. He said he knew of six other boys who had “slept with” the priest. Ganter’s personnel file showed an allegation in 1944 that Ganter had “immoral and corrupt relationships with at least three teenage boys.” Per the report, Ganter asked boys to “commit a sex act” in his office. He would give them a few dollars and tell them never to tell. A Justice of the Peace investigated the allegations in 1945, at Ganter’s request. The alleged victims denied “immoral relations” with the priest. Included on the diocese’s list of accused.
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