Clerical sex abuse crisis shows no signs of abating as more prelates and priests exposed
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Brazilian police have arrested a 31-year-old priest for sexually abusing at least five teenage girls, forcing one of his victims into an at-home abortion, burying the fetus in a friend's back garden, and recording 260 videos of sex scenes with teenagers on his cell phone.
Father Paulo Araújo da Silva buried the body of an aborted baby in the backyard of his friend, Francisco Rayner Barros Batista, after the priest procured the abortion by forcing his 17-year-old rape victim to consume Misoprostol, police chief José Barradas Júnior said on Monday.
"She miscarried after taking this medication," he told media. "The fetus was expelled in Rayner's house and the fetus buried in the backyard. The victim, who had been groomed into having sexual relations with the priest when she was 14 years old, attended St. Peter's Church, where the priest ministered."
PRIEST COERCES TEENS
Barradas said that the teenager was being psychologically coerced into staying with the priest.
"She was suffering a lot of psychological violence because the priest, in addition to coaxing his victims into the parish, forced them to stay with him. If they said 'No, I don't want to be with you anymore,' the priest forced them. He said, 'You are mine, you belong to me. If you don't stay with me, you won’t stay with anyone else,'" the police chief disclosed.
Barradas reported that at the time of Fr. da Silva's arrest at the São João parish in the diocese of Coari, he was in bed with a woman who had just turned 18, "meaning she was a minor and had already had relations with the priest."
PRIEST RECORDS SEX VIDEOS
The police seized R$30,000 ($5,500) in cash from the priest's parish residence, 260 videos of sex scenes with teenagers on his cell phone, and his notebook. "He would tell the victim to bring other friends so he could have group sex with them. And every time the priest had sex, he would record videos," Barradas said.
Another victim told police she got pregnant in 2023 and was immediately forced to have an abortion by the priest.
Coari diocese, led by Redemptorist bishop Marian Marek Piatek, released a statement after the priest's arrest on Aug. 18, stating that it had taken "all the necessary canonical measures" against the priest and it repudiated "all forms of abuse and exploitation."
The diocese said it "expresses its solidarity to the victims and their families and is immediately available to accompany and help [the victims] overcome the traumas provoked by Fr. Paulo Araújo da Silva's abuses."
The priest is suspended and can no longer have any activity in the parish. The Church is also available to work with the authorities in the inquiry, diocesan chancellor Fr. Josinaldo Plácido da Silva added.
FRESH INVESTIGATION OF CLERICAL SEX ABUSE
Meanwhile, a new exposé of clerical sex abuse cases in Brazil titled Pedofilia na Igreja: um Dossiê Inédito Sobre Casos de Abusos Envolvendo Padres Católicos no Brasil (Pedophilia in the Church: An Unpublished Dossier on Cases of Abuse Involving Catholic Priests in Brazil ), has found that 108 members of the clergy have abused 148 children and teenagers since 2000.
The book, published in June 2023, is based on three years of research by award-winning investigative journalists Fábio Gusmão and Giampaolo Morgado Braga, who analyzed more than 25,000 pages of documents from courts, public prosecutors, police investigations, dossiers, reports, and international databases.
The authors, who are certain that the number of victims is much higher, also interviewed victims and their relatives, prosecutors, priests, lawyers, police officers, journalists, psychologists who treat victims and abusers, and a priest convicted of abuse.
The cases in the book involve archbishops, bishops, monsignors, priests, friars and, in one case, a nun.
The investigation found that the profile of the victims is the same as that recorded in other parts of the world. The frequency is higher in small cities, although there are also cases in São Paulo, the largest city in the country.
MANUAL FOR SEX ABUSE
The victims are mostly from disadvantaged social classes and are male, with a ratio of two-to-one in relation to girls. The ages of the targets ranged from 3 to 17 years old.
The book highlights the case of Fr. Tarcísio Tadeu, who was repeatedly transferred instead of being sacked. Tadeu created a manual with methods for abusing children, including approach techniques, preferred targets and strategies for disguising the crimes.
"Most of the time, the Church tries to disassociate itself from the cases," observed Gusmão. "It says that it has no influence over the priest, and could not be held responsible for what he did. The defense almost always goes this way."
"We know that this culture is one of the most difficult things in the world to change. The Church is very large and widespread, and we have noticed resistance from bishops who are lower in the hierarchy," he lamented.
Brazil is the country with the most Catholics in the world, according to the Pontifical Yearbook for 2023.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
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At least Aunti-pope Frankie has a bigger pool from which to draw his Cardinals.
---- "It says that it has no influence over the priest, and could not be held responsible for what he did.----
Yeah, except for that whole recruiting and ordaining part.