Despicable priest’s cheap excuse for child porn … revenge on God

This one is hard to believe. If it were a subplot in a movie, no one would buy it. Yet you need to suspend your disbelief, because it's true. A former priest has blamed his child porn habit as revenge on God for his losing poker habit.

Then a priest, Kevin Gugliotta was arrested at his home in Toms River on October 21, 2016 and eventually extradited to Pennsylvania, NJ.com reported at the time. It was there at a second hideaway house that authorities say he collected and disseminated images of children involved in sexual acts. He was charged with 20 counts of downloading child porn and 20 counts of disseminating child porn. It was at this point of charges being filed that he was removed from his parish by the Archdiocese of Newark.

In a deal, he pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination in exchange for the dropping of the other 39 counts. He was sentenced Thursday to only 11 1/2 months to 23 1/2 months in jail and given 10 months credit for time served awaiting trial, the Associated Press reported. A shockingly light sentence for someone guilty of child pornography.

It gets worse.

Even more shocking. Gugliotta's reason for being involved in child porn? It wasn't that he got off on it. No, of course not. It wasn't that he's a sick pedophile. No, no, no. It was that he was a poker player and had been suffering poker losses, for which he became angry at God, you see. So his involvement in child porn was his act of revenge against God because of his poker losses. Pretrial records show this is exactly what he told probation officers. His attorney Jim Swetz confirms this was the former priest's reason for collecting child porn.

It gets even worse.

Fourteen years ago, Gugliotta was briefly suspended from ministry in New Jersey after allegations he molested a 13 year old boy in the 1980's. After looking into the matter, the Catholic church decided to quietly reinstate him and allowed him to serve for years in various parishes restriction free. This included a long stint working with a youth group. Why? They lamely explained that church law, or canon law, says Gugliotta couldn't be punished for something he may have done as a layman. The alleged molestation occurred before he was an ordained priest. Unbelievable.

So here you have a dangerous guy that never should have been allowed to continue as a priest end up being caught with child porn. Then he turns around and tries to pretend he's not a deviant; blames his pedophilia problem on a gambling problem, for which he ultimately blames on God.

While this is the shocking part of the story that will get the most attention, it's equally shocking that we have a criminal justice system that knows it has a pervert on its hands and sentences him so lightly that he'll soon be free to do more damage. I have often said the death penalty should be brought back for people who sexually assault children. I put child porn in that same column, and I'd give no mercy to pedophile priests.

More from New Jersey 101.5: