Have You Seen This Man?
There was a small item in the Orange County (California) Register about a Las Vegas priest, Fr. George Chaanine, 52, who was accused of attempting to murder a female parishioner. Fr. Chaanine was pastor of Our Lady of Las Vegas Church, which is located about four miles from the strip. The Las Vegas police dubbed him a “person of interest” and were attempting to locate him down for questioning. “He’s on the lam,” said Lt. Jeff Whitehead. They believe the priest is driving a cream-colored Buick LeSabre.
An arrest warrant will charge him with kidnapping and battery with intent to commit sex assault, Las Vegas police Lt. John Bradshaw said. Fr. Chaamine has been placed on administrative leave by the diocese.
The story may die after this item, but I am really curious if this was the result of unrequited love/lust by one of the parties; a relationship gone bad; pent up demons that exploded out of Fr. Chaanine, or something else.
There is no mention of the incident on the Diocese of Las Vegas web site.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Hi…check out Jimmy Akin’s Catholic Blog….there are lots of folks defending the rapist. The ugly stuff by orthodox Catholics is posted under Confronting Evil. Best, Cholo
February 9th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Hi Cholo. Thanks for writing. I checked out jimmyakins.org. I looked but didn’t find the “Confronting Evil” section.
In re: to his blog about Fr. Chaanine, the only area where I really disagreed with him was his philosophy about how much to tell the teens in the parish about the situation. He seemed very concerned the incident would torpedo their shaky faith. I had to smile–teens living in Las Vegas! I don’t think so! Teens these days are a lot more sophisticated than adults, particularly old school Catholic adults. I think the best thing for teens is to level with them, tell them the truth. That will protect them, to learn about inappropriate sexual contact. If anything, the men in the parish and especially parish ministries should tell the teens that a man or youth forcing himself on a female is unacceptable for any reason and should not be tolerated. Thanks for writing. Karen