Brody's Notes... Sex, Intrigue & Power In Roman Catholic Church- Scandals Spread To Brazil

Roberto Cabrini  Photo By SBT Television Network Brazil

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 18 | "Connection Reporter,"  a weekly news programme of reports, research and major investigative pieces in Brazil anchored by veteran journalist Roberto Cabrini, on the Brazilian SBT Television Network, has uncovered another disturbing sex scandal involving Catholic priests, this time in Brazil. About 74 per cent of Brazil's 140 million people identify as Catholics. 

The programme last week aired video from a hidden camera showing father Marques Barbosa, 82, having sex with a 19-year-old boy in the northeastern Brazilian state of Alagoas. After the act, the priest's face is identified as he looks toward the camera and says "Who's there?" "Who is it?" The report on the program Conexao Reporter also included charges by three former altar boys that they too had been sexually abused by local priests. 

The following video was edited by the SBT Network for broadcast and does not contain graphic footage:

In the broadcast segment, Cabrini reports: [ Translated from Portuguese ]

"Our investigation begins when we have access to a video delivered by a resident of a city of Alagoas.  Scenes that reveal a dark side of faith.  Basically, the altar of a house built with money from the faithful.  In bed, a priest.  The priest in sexual act with a young man. In the end, the priest is shocked to realize that everything was being recorded. 

Arapiraca, with two hundred thousand inhabitants, is the second largest city in the state of Alagoas. As in so many parts of the country, the Church exerts enormous influence in the state & community. This Catholic priest this is one of the best-known in the region. Although retired from of the Parish of San Jose, he continues celebrating Masses and weddings for the local populace. His popularity is such that T-shirts were sold to raise money to build a retirement house for him. The faithful of the parish of Arapiraca see him as a true saint.

Behind the Sacristy, the secret. A disturbing image. Sex, intrigue and power in the Catholic Church. The altar and the crucifix as witnesses. Minds traumatized. Memories that remain? Endless nightmares. Teaching sacred, gospel and character formation of young people.  Was this an excuse to get close to boys? Did the priest think that an altar boy was the shortest way to God? The true path of Calvary. Innocence denied. Prohibited. Raped.  

The alleged victim a former altar boy who appears on video having sex with a Monsignor Arapiraca. Today he says he is aware of the evil that haunted him for eight years. But faith, unshakable so far, was being gradually replaced by another feeling. Revolt. The location of who shot the footage. This is another former altar boy who said he was also a victim of the priest, for twelve years.Today, twenty-one years old, he says he decided to call the abuse to a halt. The former altar boy who took  the video found the gate of the house was ajar and with a handheld camera recorded the afternoon of revelry and lust. The images suggest a consensual relationship, but the former altar boy says that the abuse began when he was just a boy."

After the show aired, Alagoas Archbishop Valerio Breda ordered the removal from church work of Arapiraca as well as three other priests Luiz Marques Barbosa, Edilson Duarte and Raimundo Gomes. The three had also been accused of sexual improprieties in the dioceses.

"One was removed from his parish and faces charges in the civil justice system," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, adding that the other two had been suspended from their duties pending an investigation. 

Graphic video of Marques Barbosa's abuse last year with a victim identified as Fabiano is being sold on the streets of the town of Arapiraca, website Alagoas 24 horas reported.

Elsewhere in Latin America, a Spanish religious instructor was reported to have been jailed in Chile for possession of pornographic images of children. A prosecutor said the priest, Jose Arregui, 53, would be tried for child pornography possession on March 24, the newspaper La Tercera's website reported.

Paedophile priest scandals have rocked the Catholic leadership & Church in Europe since the Irish government released two explosive reports in November of 2009, detailing horrific reports of sexual and physical abuse by priests & nuns spanning a nearly six decade time period.

Revelations soon followed in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria and in Germany - the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI. Both the pope and his older brother Georg Ratzinger have been caught up in the spiralling scandal in Germany. The pope's former diocese in Munich confirmed a report that, as Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger in 1980, he had approved housing so that a known paedophile priest could seek therapy, while Georg directed a boys choir whose members later suffered abuse. 

Senior Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi had charged this past Sunday, that there has been a "dogged focus" on the Ratzinger brothers by European Media organisations in an apparent bid "to personally implicate the Holy Father in questions of abuse. It is clear that these efforts have failed," he added.
Roberto Cabrini began his career as a journalist for 16 years as a reporter for a small radio in Piracicaba, in São Paulo, Brazil. As a foreign war correspondent, he covered six conflicts (Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Cambodia, Haiti and Kashmir) and has accumulated several prestigious journalistic awards.
In his 28 year career, Cabrini took part in five Olympics and five World Cups, was an overseas correspondent for eight years - four of them in London and four in New York - as well as news coverage in over 50 other countries. Hailed as an investigative reporter, Cabrini has tracked fugitives from justice, that the Brazilian police could not find.
Now, at the SBT network, he heads the "Connection Reporter, a weekly program of reports, research and major reports. With a specialised team, formed by experienced professionals and young talents, Roberto Cabrini reports the news, with a differentiated approach.