Pastor of catholic church speaks out following assistant director's arrest

By Leah Jordan
WTVM
July 17, 2016

http://www.wtvm.com/story/32462341/pastor-of-catholic-church-speaks-out-following-assistant-directors-arrest

Pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church held a meeting to discuss the arrest of one of their staffers.

John Martin

MADISON, AL (WAFF) -

Church members are still in shock after a church employee was arrested on child pornography charges. John Martin has since been fired from his position as Assistant Director for the Parish Religious Education Program.

Read: Church employee arrested for child pornography possession

"It's a rude awakening. You can never be certain," Father Phil O’Kennedy, Pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, said.

After Martin’s arrest, an important first step for the church was researching when Martin had been in contact with children.

"You look at most the folks here and they're grownups. They know the big, bad world as well as I do; they don't need help from me on how to handle it,” O’Kennedy said. “The worry for all of us is our youth and our children.”

O'Kennedy said Martin had been around youth only a couple of times – one of those times just last week when he was a driver and chaperone for a youth ministry trip to Atlanta.

"We've checked as best we can and we've got as much assurance as we humanly can that he has not interfered with children or youth in our parish that we're aware of,” O’Kennedy said.

The youth leader made calls to everyone who could have potentially been impacted. As for O'Kennedy, he said his biggest challenge is not knowing when he'll be able to face Martin again.

But if Martin's wife can forgive him, O'Kennedy said he can, too. O'Kennedy said part of what makes him sad is not knowing whether or not this will be a step backwards for Catholic churches that have been working hard to “get their act together.”