Church pedophilia scandal grows in Latin America

[Stuart G]

Source: MSNBC, AP

TALES AZZONI
Associated Press Writer

updated 2:11 a.m. CT, Tues., April 20, 2010
SAO PAULO - The detention of an 83-year-old priest in Brazil for allegedly abusing boys as young as 12 in a case involving lurid videotape and a congressional investigation is the latest scandal to hit the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America.

The allegations against Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa — and two other Brazilian priests — have made huge headlines throughout this Catholic nation and come amid accusations of sexual activity by priests across the region as well as in Europe and the U.S.

The scandal erupted when Brazilian television network SBT last month broadcast a tape of Barbosa in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet.

The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. 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 reporters went to Barbosa's house and confronted him. Asked if he ever abused boys, Barbosa said he could only answer such a question "in confession" and cut off the interview.

Brazil's legislature launched a sex abuse investigation, which produced allegations Barbosa molested boys. The elderly priest was detained late Sunday.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36651131/ns/world_news-americas/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. every week a new story. Sure looks like the Vatican really cleaned up.

Hardly.

[happygoluckytoyou]

19. IN A RELATED STORY priest says he misunderstood the alter-boy thing, and was trying to alter him

[happygoluckytoyou]

20. IN A RELATED STORY pope offers reparations to the molested boys... choir robes, this week, half off

[polichick]

2. Maybe Latin America and the U.S. will finally wake up and stop supporting...

...that criminal organization - good to hear on NPR recently that Catholic masses across Europe are virtually empty.

[Stuart G]

4. There is video, and an arrest in Brazil...perhaps masses in

Latin Amreica will empty too.
If that really happens, for a long time, perhaps real change (like this pope resigning) will come.

[Stuart G]

3. Latin America seemed safe from this, but..

this news there, must be very threatening to the higher ups. Cause it has been said that the Roman Catholic Church is growing there, and this could destroy that growth.
Good. The leaders deserve all the pain that they have sowed.

[goclark]

5. For starters, the Pope needs to step down

immediately!

And ~ he can also take his Partners in Crime all over the globe with him ~ they all need to go!

[No Elephants]

9. Who in the church high enough up to replace him is innocent?

[goclark]

21. Symbolically he needs to step down

IMO.

The Church needs to show the world that they will start at the top and set an example for all the others.

If the Pope stays just because he cried and said sorry, what does that say?

Just like John Edwards (not the exact situation) needed to get out of the race,the Pope needs to get out -- sorry does not do it!

[Stuart G]

22. And he will step down..if...collections around the world decrease by

50%..and stay that way..
...and attendance decreases by 50% and stays that way..

If that happens as a protest, he will resign. Or somehow be removed.
That kind of quiet, powerful protest will work . it is the only way to get rid of him.

[appal_jack]

31. Probably a few nuns. Maybe.

Probably a few nuns. Maybe. Somewhere.

Maybe the ones who signed up around Vatican II. Some liberation theology holdouts that the Church has not yet managed to purge out.

Other than that, I figure that they're mostly guilty/complicit/or otherwise worthless.

-app

[goclark]

33. The church of cards ~ they would just keep falling

until they get a good and decent Pope.

Doesn't seem like a lot to ask for ~ right? :shrug:

[tomm2thumbs]

6. if the Vatican is a 'country' - what percentage of their officials are child molesters?

seems to me this would get any 'country' tossed from the U.N.

[boppers]

34. Vatican State has really low "consent" limits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe#Vatican_State

"There is an equal age of consent set at 12 years of age in Art. 331 (1).<32><33> When there is a relationship of dependence (like teacher/student, etc.) the age of consent is 15 years in Art. 331 (2).<32>
The criminal law was introduced 1929 and was the same law as the Codice Penale in Italy on 8 June 1929. Because of the death penalty, reintroduced in 1926 in Italy, the reference point was changed in 1969 to 31 December 1924, but this has no effect on the age of consent laws. The age of consent in the Codice Penale from Italy was changed in 1930, but this no longer had any effect on Vatican City. Vatican law provides that criminal suspects arrested in Vatican City are to be tried under Vatican law in Italian courts, while those who escape to Italy before their arrest are to be tried under Italian law, even if their alleged crime occurred on Vatican territory"

[tomm2thumbs]

39. that is really low

there are a couple great books, especially the first, which talks about how families literally used to swap kids with other families, because incest was so prevalent because they knew the sex would occur with children but at least it was not incestuous. Geesh - a different world to be sure and no doubt a reflection of the era of laws you mentioned regarding the Vatican

The Family Sex and Marriage in Englad, 1500-1800
http://www.amazon.com/Marriage-England-1500-1800-Abridged-footnotes/dp/0061319791/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&tag=whitleyheicom-20&qid=1271863529&sr=1-3

and

The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Cat-Massacre-Episodes-Cultural/dp/0465012744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&tag=whitleyheicom-20&qid=1271863620&sr=1-1

[Ichingcarpenter]

37. Ronald Reagan

Did you know that Ronald Reagan repealed a 1867 law to recognize the Vatican diplomatically
against his Secretary of State opposition within the first month of his inauguration

[anachro1]

7. Father Alfredo Prado

Raped me as a young boy of 14 in 1967. This was in San Antonio, Texas. Two apparently incompetent lawyers failed to get me any resolution on this matter. For the past 40 years, the church moved this man all over the southwest, until he ran away to Costa Rica after being instructed to live in one of the church's many pedophile priest homes.

Currently he is at the Queen and Lady of All Creation cult alongside a 'visionary' who speaks for their virgin.

[Stuart G]

8. I am deeply sorry for your pain...nt

[No Elephants]

10. How very ysad. I'm sorry.

[myrna minx]

12. I am so sorry.

:hug:

[amandabeech]

13. I am very sorry.

I hope that you will sometime find peace.

Alfredo Prado does not deserve the honorable title of "Father."

[anachro1]

14. Thank you

What I would really LOVE, though, is a competent attorney.

One heals as best they can in this situation, while Prado is stillout there, getting little boys drunk and abusing them.

He's in his 70's.

[CountAllVotes]

17. is this him by chance?

Ex-Oblate priest accused

Web Posted: 03/08/2004 12:00 AM CST

Dane Schiller
Express-News Staff Writer

After a church report that 20 area priests have been accused of sexually abusing minors in the past five decades, a man who grew up in San Antonio is pushing ahead with a $20 million lawsuit claiming that in 1967 he was raped by the then-pastor at St. Timothy Church.
The lawsuit names the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate order and Father Alfredo Prado, 73, who has drawn attention for being dismissed from the Oblates and for celebrating Mass with the San Antonio followers of a purported visionary in Costa Rica.

Neither the church nor Prado, who served at St. Timothy's from 1965 to 1968 and again in 1971, will say why he was removed from the Oblates.

http://cultvirginmary.blogspot.com/

[anachro1]

23. Yes!

I am the man mentioned in the story. Since that story broke, six other men have contacted me with their account of being put in a similar situation with this man. "We are giving the poor some underwear, so I need you to try these on so we can measure them." He used this trick on children time and time again. Once the young boy did that, he would 'feel you' for measurements.

Sometimes he was rewarded with an erection.

[CountAllVotes]

24. thanks for letting me know

I have donated to the Oblates in the past. I will not ever do that again I promise you. :mad:

You have my deepest condolences and I hope that you will find restitution at some point in your life.

These events are very disgusting and reprehensible and they have deeply affected you no doubt. At least you know that you are not alone.

I am very sorry to learn about this!

Take care of yourself! :hug:

[amandabeech]

29. I wish that I could help you with an attorney in California.

If you were in D.C., I'd help you look around, but I'm afraid I don't know anyone in California.

He got boys drunk and he's still doing it?

Even more despicable.

[anachro1]

30. A biiiiig tumber of brandy

from this good priest started me out as an alcoholic as well. Took me 22 years to finally rid myself of that monster.

[amandabeech]

32. You've done a lot for yourself.

Alcoholism is a plague in my mom's family. One of my uncles died an alcohol related death, and it contributed to a fairly early death of one of my aunts.

I hope that you give yourself extra, extra credit for surviving not only abuse but alcoholism, too.

You might not be able to internalize it, but you are a very strong person.

[saigon68]

15. Mr Winkie

[FedUpWithIt All]

26. I am so sorry you endured this. Children are so vulnerable.

I hope that justice finds the monster that abused your trust and innocence.

:hug:

[goclark]

27. He needs to be arrested right now !

I am so angry at him and all the rest of them!

The church needs to tell all of them that ever did anything to a child or adult to LEAVE THE CHURCH immediately or goclark will have them arrested!

There is no excuse to have the "TEACHERS" that listen to the confessions of those that faithfully Believe .... to be guilty of sins that their "STUDENTS" and the rest of the sane world knows to be the work of the Devil!

Can't there be a world wide class action suit or something -- they are not capable of governing their own?

What makes them so special, I don't get it!

Forgive me for this rant


:evilfrown:

[Dorian Gray]

38. I am so sorry that you had to suffer through something

so horrifying. That is inexcusable that the priest was not punished, and I am sorry for your suffering and pain in this situation.

[DeSwiss]

11. K&R n/t

[pattmarty]

16. This has been going on for CENTURIES not just the last 20 yrs.

[ensho]

18. glad to see sunlight on the Latin Amer. catholic criminals

and justice coming to the victums

[RainMickey]

25. All I want to know is what an 82 year old takes to get wood. n/t

[Cronus Protagonist]

28. Viagra

Did you really need to be told that? lol

[boppers]

35. Exploitable Innocence.

These are not people with normal sexuality, their faith demands otherwise.

[Stuart G]

36. This is all over Latain America...In an update of the original story..this was added..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36651131

You will need to read about half way through the story to find the new information:

Latin Americans priests have faced a cascade of accusations of abuse of minors recently.

Just this month, church officials in Uruguay confirmed they had not revealed the whereabouts to police of a defrocked priest who fled home to his family in Uruguay after a nun accused him of raping three children in Bolivia. And a priest in Chile was charged with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including a girl he had fathered.

A Mexican woman charged in March that the deceased, scandal-tainted founder of a conservative Catholic religious order abused one of the two sons she said he fathered with her. The Legionaries of Christ, the order founded by the Rev. Marcial Maciel, acknowledged earlier in a separate case that Maciel had molested seminarians


So, it is everywhere...And it is well known by people in Latin America.
.Hopefully they are not attending their local church..or giving as much..

This pope is the cover-up king...

[Blue_Tires]

40. thanks for this...

[Stuart G]

41. Here is more... Vatican issued new rules, (first time) last week..took a while eh?

Vatican Issues new regulations on reporting abuse.. took em a while eh? :sarcasm:

read about 2/3 of the way down..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36683156/ns/world_news-euro... /


"Last week, the Vatican for the first time issued guidelines telling bishops they should report cases of abusive priests to police where civil laws require it. While the Vatican has insisted that was long its policy, it was never written explicitly and victims, lawyers, government-backed inquiries and grand juries have all accused the church of mounting a cover-up to keep clerical abuse secret and away from civil jurisdiction."

But the Vatican says in essence that they always cooperated..oh yea!!!