Monday 24 May 2010

Priest Arrested in Brazil

For the third time in two months, Brazilian authorities have initiated prosecutions against Catholic priests. In Aoril, three priests were taken into custody in a heavily publicised case after video footage of them with a former altar boy was screened on television. Also last month, another priest was charged by prosecutors with sexually molesting several altar boys. Now, in a third incident, another priest has been arrested.  

Priest Arrested in Brazil on Charges of Sexually Abusing Boy

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The authorities in Rio de Janeiro said Sunday that they had arrested a Polish priest and charged him with sexually abusing a 16-year-old former altar boy.

The judge who issued the arrest warrant said the priest, Father Marcin Michael Strachanowski, 44, had used his parish’s rectory as an “erotic dungeon” to carry out sex acts with boys.

The police in Rio de Janeiro State said that Father Strachanowski, who was arrested late Friday, was being held at a police station awaiting court proceedings. He is accused of handcuffing the 16-year-old to a bed “to satisfy his sexual whims,” according to state prosecutors.

It is the third case of sexual abuse involving a priest in Brazil, which has the world’s biggest Roman Catholic population, in the last two months.
(Read the full report at the New York Times)

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