Mark Hourigan has officially been ordained as a minister for a local church in Louisville, Kentucky. How does a man who is required to register as a lifetime sex offender become ordained as a church as a minister? Mark Hourigan in 1998 was accused of sodomizing, and intimidating, and molesting an 11 year old boy. Hourigan, pled to a lesser charge of (2) counts of sexual abuse, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Mark Hourigan believes he is not going to reoffend since he has completed a sex offender program in prison and while on parole. Sadly, the statistics do not agree with Mark, as less than 2% of child sex offenders have been successfully rehabilitated. The reality is many sex offenders reoffend multiple times even after serving multiple prison sentences. There is never a guarantee a sex offender will not reoffend as long as he has access to children.

Although Mark Hourigan is no longer on parole, he must register as a sex offender for his entire life. Mark Hourigan has agreed not to minister to children in the church that has ordained him. Many people believe everyone; even people like Mark deserve a second chance. However do we allow a convicted child sex offender to have a second chance because if he fails another child will suffer.

How will the children who attend this church be protected? People are quick to forget someone is dangerous when that person becomes part of the group. How soon before everyone looks the other way when Mark hugs a child during church service, or visits a family at their home. What about the children that may be at weddings or funerals performed by this man? What do you tell your child when their minister is a convicted sex offender?

It only takes a minute to violate a child and to cause a child a lifetime of difficulties as he or she tries to forget what happened to them. Ministers are powerful people to children and if raised with a fear of GOD a child will be an easy target in the future. Sex offenders by law are not suppose to attend activities where children are present, like daycare centers, schools, churches, birthday parties, or any place children frequent. So, how can this man then be ordained as a minister of a church who has children in the congregation?

How is this legal? How is this moral? The child Mark Hourigan molested will never have another day or night where this man’s actions (when the child was 11) will not affect him. Why then should Mark Hourigan be given a second chance? The real question is how many children have been violated by Mark Hourigan and have yet to tell anyone what happened. Most child pedophiles are not caught the first time he or she violates a child. Will Mark Hourigan's ordination be revoked if there are other children whom he has previously violated?

Please post your thoughts in the Missing and Exploited Children Forum regarding Mark Hourigan a convicted sex offender being allowed to become an ordained minister after his conviction.