Catholic parish priest Martin McVeigh accidentally showed gay pornography to a group of congregation members, including one 8-year-old boy, during a meeting at a grade school in Pomeroy, Northern Ireland, last week.

The March 26 meeting was held to prepare a class of children for First Holy Communion.

When McVeigh plugged a USB flash drive into a computer, intending to display a PowerPoint presentation to his audience, he and onlookers were shocked when 16 gay pornography stills flashed across the screen.

A humiliated McVeigh immediately unplugged the drive and ran from the room.

BBC reports that he gave no explanation as he left, but returned about 20 minutes later to continue with the meeting and encourage children to donate some of their Holy Communion money to the church.

He was visibly shaken and flustered, said some of the attendant parents to BBC.

Cardinal Sean Brady, who heads the Catholic Church in Ireland, released a statement on Monday saying that inappropriate imagery was inadvertently shown by a priest. ... This was immediately removed from the screen.

The priest stated that he had no knowledge of the offending imagery. The archdiocese immediately sought the advice of the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland], who indicate that, on the basis of the evidence available, no crime had been committed.

McVeigh is reportedly assisting the archdiocese with an investigation into the incident.

CNN reports that some parishioners are demanding that the archdiocese suspend McVeigh, and were planning a protest at their local church on Sunday. They canceled the rally after learning that McVeigh was not participating in Mass that day.

McVeigh himself offered some vague explanations to the Ulster Herald.

I don't know how it happened but I know what happened, he said.

There are people making innuendoes who weren't even there, but in this day and age these stories grow. All I can do is let the incident be investigated and be open to that investigation so that what happened can be legitimately explained.