POMEROY, Northern Ireland, April 29 (UPI) -- A Northern Ireland priest said Sunday he will take a leave from the priesthood ahead of a probe into reports he showed pornographic images in a presentation.
Cardinal Sean Brady said he accepted the Rev. Martin McVeigh's request to take a sabbatical with the understanding the priest would return to his parish, CNN reported.
McVeigh admitted he destroyed the memory stick containing the pornographic images. The photos were displayed at the start of a Power Point presentation to parents of students preparing for their first Holy Communion at a grade school in Pomeroy, County Tyrone.
McVeigh said he had no knowledge of how the images came to be on the memory stick, insisting he did not put them there.
"In the hope of bringing resolution and healing to the division and pain within the parish, I have taken the decision to ask Cardinal Brady to allow me to leave the parish of Pomeroy and to take sabbatical leave," McVeigh said in a statement. "The memory of this awful episode will remain with me for the rest of my life."
