Brazil priest detained after pedophilia accusation
By TALES AZZONI (AP) – 1 day ago
SAO PAULO — Police detained an 83-year-old Brazilian priest after a congressional hearing produced allegations he molested boys as young as 12 and a television station displayed a sex tape of him in bed with a 19-year-old.
The pedophilia allegations against Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa are the most lurid of several sexual scandals to hit the Brazilian church recently, largely because of the videotape that has been widely distributed over the Internet.
Sen. Magno Malta, the lawmaker leading the legislature's sexual abuse probe, said that the detention late Sunday of Barbosa was a milestone in the fight against child abuse in Brazil. He said the investigation is not an attack on the church, but at suspected child molesters.
Judge Romulo Vasconcelos, who participated in the congressional probe, told Globo TV on Monday that he requested Barbosa's immediate detention out of fear that the priest would flee the country.
The case now goes to prosecutors, who will decide whether to file child abuse charges.
Congressional investigators said that more than 20 witnesses were called and some testified that Barbosa and two other priests in the same northeastern archdiocese had abused boys as young as 12, giving them money, clothes and other gifts.
Bishop Valerio Breda of the Penedo archdiocese in the northeastern state of Alagoas said recently that all three priests had been suspended and that the church was conducting its own investigation.
Breda said none of the alleged victims or their families had ever contacted the church with allegations of abuse, but it was cooperating with police.
One of the accused priests, Edison Duarte, was given immunity for cooperating with authorities, Sen. Malta said in a statement. The third priest — Raimundo Marques — also was being investigated but denied any wrongdoing. He has not been arrested.
Church members have not responded to calls requesting information on where Barbosa and the other priests had worked in the past. While he holds the rank of monsignor, he apparently has never been a bishop.
It was not immediately clear if Barbosa had a lawyer.
Barbosa told investigators that "he is not a pedophile," but after three former altar boys testified he had abused them, he asked for forgiveness, according to Renato Paoliello, a spokesman for Malta.
Barbosa also told investigators he is not homosexual and said what happened in the video was a one-time incident, Paoliello said.
The video — secretly filmed in January 2009 — was broadcast by the SBT network last month. It was not clear if the 19-year-old, identified as a former altar boy who had worked with Barbosa for four years, had previous sexual relations with the priest.
SBT said the video was sent anonymously to the network, and reporters went to the town of 200,000 people to investigate.
Confronted by the network, Barbosa said that pedophilia "is more (a problem) of homosexuality than pedophilia." Asked if he ever abused boys, Barbosa said he could only answer such a question "in confession" and cut off the interview.
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