A priest accused of sexually abusing 3 boys in the 1970s worked at Walt Disney World for 15 years with a reference from the church

By Kelly Mclaughlin
Business Insider
August 19, 2018

https://read.bi/2N8VDzS

Reverend Edward Ganster reportedly worked at Walt Disney World for 15 years. Photo by Jim Young

The church didn't alert Disney World that Ganster was accused of sexual misconduct. Photo by Meaghan Kelly

• The Reverend Edward Ganster is among hundreds of priests named in the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation that revealed a mass child abuse scandal across six Catholic Church dioceses.
• Ganster was first accused of abusing a teenage boy in 1977 when he was a priest at St. Joseph's Church in Easton.
• He left the church more than a decade later to get married.
• The diocese reportedly gave the priest a reference for a job at Walt Disney World, where he worked as a train driver in the Magic Kingdom for 15 years.

A Pennsylvania priest who tortured a teenage altar boy for more than a year worked at Walt Disney World after leaving the Catholic Church, according to the bombshell grand jury report released earlier this week.

The Reverend Edward Ganster is among hundreds of priests named in the grand jury investigation, which found that 1,000 children across six dioceses had been abused over 70 years as Catholic Church leaders covered up the allegations.

Accusations against Ganster span decades, with the first against him coming out in 1977.

Ganster was working as a priest at St. Joseph's Church in Easton, Pennsylvania, when a woman accused him of getting in bed with her 13-year-old son on an overnight trip in the late 1970s.

The boy told his mother that Ganster, who became a priest in 1971, had "hurt" him and that "something happened" in the confession booth, according to the grand jury report.

Following the allegation, Ganster was given counseling and reassigned to another church, the report said, while the "victim's life spiraled out of control with broken relationships and anger issues resulting from the abuse."

Throughout his career, Ganster also worked at two high schools and as a Catholic student adviser at Penn State University Campus Ministry.

He later left the church in 1990 to get married.

The diocese the reportedly gave the priest a reference for a job at Walt Disney World, where the report says he worked for 15 years.

The report reads: "Despite knowing Ganster was a sexual predator, Monsignor Muntone responded to Ganster's request for a reference by writing, 'I am quite sure that the Diocese will be able to give you a positive reference in regard to the work you did during your years of service here as a priest.'"

His obituary in the Orlando Sentinel said he worked as a train conductor at the Magic Kingdom. "He really loved trains," his wife told the paper.

Disney World did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

In the years after Ganster left the priesthood, further sexual abuse allegations against him surfaced.

In 2002, a 37-year-old man came forward with accusations that Ganster had sexually abused him in the 1970s, when he was a 14-year-old altar boy in Frackville, Pennsylvania.

The victim said Ganster dragged him across the floor by his underwear and beat him with a metal cross, according to the grand jury.

He made the allegations again in 2004, but they were not reported to the Northampton County District Attorney's Office until 2007.

In 2005, the mother who first reported her son's abuse to the church in 1977 came forward again and told the Diocese about it.

The mother of a third victim came forward in 2015, accusing Ganster of abusing her 12-year-old son in 1977.