SAN ANGELO (TX)
Military.com
September 7, 2018
By Gina Harkins
The Air Force is looking into comments a Catholic chaplain made at a base chapel in which he allegedly equated child abuse in the church with homosexuality, prompting one officer’s family to walk out of mass.
Capt. Antonio Rigonan, an Air Force chaplain at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, said during an Aug. 19 service that many priests who’ve abused children were “homosexuals” and “effeminate,” according to a military officer’s spouse who attended that morning.
After Rigonan allegedly repeated the stance several times, the spouse said her family got up and left. The woman, who spoke to Military.com on the condition of anonymity to protect her husband’s career, said she felt “very incapable of fixing” the wrongdoing she felt occurred that day.
“I’ve had to talk about a lot of serious things with [our children], who didn’t understand why we were upset,” she said. “It’s at least been a good message on consent and being aware of other people’s intentions.”
Goodfellow officials said they were not aware of Rigonan’s comments before Military.com inquired about them. There are no recordings of chapel services, base public affairs officials said, but “Goodfellow leadership is looking into what comments were made.”
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