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Church helped former priest accused of abuse get Disney job

Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. is seen on Friday, Jan. 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A grand jury report into child sexual abuse in Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania says church officials gave a former priest a positive reference to work at Disney World, even though they’d fielded at least one complaint about him sexually abusing a boy.

The ex-priest, Edward Ganster, went on to work at Disney World. He died in 2014.

The report cites a letter Allentown’s bishop wrote to Orlando’s bishop in the late 1980s while Ganster was on sick leave at a Catholic mental health hospital. He said Ganster’s problems were “partially sexual” and that he couldn’t reassign him.

The report says a monsignor separately told Ganster he was sure the diocese would give him a positive reference.

In 2002 and later, the diocese allegedly received complaints about Ganster abusing two more victims in 1977.