G
General Veers
Guest
Apr 20, 2010
Brazilian priest arrested
<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> RIO DE JANEIRO - AN 84-YEAR-OLD Brazilian priest caught on camera in a sex act with a choirboy has been arrested and put in detention, police holding him in their barracks in north-east Brazil told AFP. The 30-day detention was ordered by a judge to prevent the priest, Luiz Marques Barbosa, fleeing pending the outcome of a criminal investigation for pedophilia, a spokesman for the police unit in the town of Arapiraca said.
'As Father Barbosa was chaplain for Sao Paulo's military police, he has the privilege of being detained in our barracks instead of going to jail,' the spokesman said. Barbosa's case, which adds to a paedophile scandal tarnishing the Catholic Church, came to light a month ago when a Brazilian television channel broadcast video footage of the priest receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar. The incident scandalised Brazil, where 74 per cent of the 190-million strong population is self-declared Catholic.
A parliamentary commission in Arapiraca held a three-day inquiry into pedophilia in the region, hearing from witnesses and alleged victims. The video featuring Barbosa was shown during the hearings. The priest asked for forgiveness before the inquiry, but stated: 'I am not a pedophile,' according to Globo television news. Two other priests implicated in alleged paedophilia by three former choirboys speaking in the video have been ordered to not leave the town of Arapiraca. -- AFP
