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Some things are so distasteful and grotesque that the baristas have to commisserate to decide whether some stories we come across are just too much to bear. Sadly, this story is fell into that category, but it is newsworthy given the continuing child molesting priest scandal overrunning the Vatican.
Brazil is the latest country to be engulfed in the sickness. Only this time we’re dealing with a country where the age of consent is 14. However, a video has emerged and is circulating of an 82-year-old Brazilian priest, Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa, having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy.
Time and again, I have to remind myself that the people hurt most, aside from the children, who can never fully heal after being abused by their priest, are the good priests who do good works for their communities in the most selfless ways possible. Also hurt are the many frustrated and pained faithful who have watched their church descend into madness under this Pope.
More below the fold, or please bypass this post at this point.
The case came to light after the SBT network aired a video purportedly showing an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy who worked for him for four years. Other young men appeared on the report saying that they, too, had been abused by Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa.Also under investigation are Monsignor Raimundo Gomes, 52, and Father Edilson Duarte, 43, for allegedly having sexual relations with boys and young men.
According to a statement from the church, the three priests are “supposedly involved in acts (yet to be proven) of sexual abuse.” The statement did not say whether the men admit or deny guilt. None of the priests could be located to ask about the case, and the church would not provide contact details for them.
The video in question is blurry and nothing seen is explicit, but it is stomach-churning because this is a priest not only 1) breaking his vows of celibacy, but 2) having sex with someone who is not a peer, but a subordinate. We have no idea whether this 19-year-old had been abused for years and thus this is not a consensual relationship, but what we do know is that a third person was in that room taping the sex act, and that individual, 21 at the time, said Barbosa had been abusing him since the age of 12.
Even more disturbing, when a reporter encountered Barbosa, he said he could only answer in Confession as to whether he raped/abused underage boys.
The video, with a rough translation:
A city in the area of Lagoish
Rather disturbing images
Unfortunately it reveals to us a very dark side of the faith
Outside of the house, built with the money from the faithful
In the bed, a priest,
In a sexual act with a (male) young person
Obviously cannot show this in its entirety
The photograph on the wall is symbolic…
At the end the priest is shocked to realize that someone is looking at
him through the window“Who is it that is at the window?”
“Who is it?”
“Who is it that is here?”
As I said, this is not explicit, but nonetheless the imagery of Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa serves as a stand-in for the filthy, apparently guilt-free behavior of priests who feared no discipline and abused their power as spiritual leaders to turn young children and adolescents into their sexual playthings. To think that acts were covered up for years as the church looked the other way or sent these priests off to be “healed” multiple times only to place the fox back in the henhouse is abhorrent.
And when the Pope’s promised letter on the scandals and abuses is made public on Friday, it can do little to repair the damage he has done to the church by participating in this charade — as Cardinal Bernard Law, who tried to bury the pedophile priest scandal in Boston, is given safe haven at the Vatican.
16 Comments
South ParkI’m with South Park on this one:
Is there any reason to become a priest OTHER than having sex with little boys?
Yes. . .In what other job can yo do no work, produce no goods, perform no legitimate service, yet get paid and “taken care of”?
Nice work if you can get it.
Joke of The DayIf you lose your ten year old child at Disney World, what is the fastest way to find him?
Call a Catholic priest to help you!!!!
One of the nice things about this St Padraic’s day…Is that the REAL snakes are about to get kicked out of Ireland, followed by the Protestants. Goddess willing, Northern Ireland will follow-and with those two evil institutions gone, NI will probably, FINALLY be at peace.
AndAnd that would be worthy of an Amen and three Hail Marys. . .
a 19 yo altar boy?This is one of the weakest priest abuse cases.
At 14 yo I was sexual with an adult male, as were several other teens in my neighborhood, he gave a BJ. He later got busted with a 14 yo boy, and went to prison for 2 yrs on sodomy charges. I willingly allowed this man to be sexual with me, and I know Jr. High School teacher who had male students aggresively try to initiate relations with him. The adult isn’t always the aggressor, it is the adult’s place to refuse, since he’s the mature partner.
A 19 yo anywhere in the world is considered an adult, and well beyond the age of consent.
While someone in their 80′s with someone in their teens has a Harold and Maude factor, it’s perfectly legal.
it’s not weak if this young manhad been repeatedly abused as a child. There are countless stories of the feeling of helplessness from having complied with the abuser for so long that there is no feeling that they can get away.
So yes, chronologically it is legal, but given the charges of the videographer, it’s more likely the priest could have been continuing sexual relations developing from an abusive relationship rather than a consensual one. It looks like it will be investigated and some of this will come out.
And not only that…The PERP was sick enough to have this encounter RECORDED. So, that means there’s video. It’s gone WAY beyond survivor stories of “father” so and so in the confessional.
I hadn’t read the entire story where it specified this began at 12 yoSo it is a longtime abuse, not merely a 19 yo with an old priest.
Ah, OK. And that’s what is really sick about all this. Not only did this PERP abuse the kid when he was 12, he continued to abuse him until he was 19. That’s just warped, IMO.
It was recorded by a Peeping Tom……not by the priest himself.
19 years oldis not a boy. I understand the abuse may have started when this man was 15 (the article says the altar boy had been with the priest for 4 years) but it should have been written better. Perhaps
“…showing an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old man who worked for him for four years. The priest is suspecting of having abused the young man starting at age 15…”
Alsothe article states that it is not known whether the 19 year old was abused. The person video taping the act is the one who states he was abused from age 12 on. Then it certainly should not have said boy.
and the specific even filmedwas between two people above the age of consent.
I have no problem believing the accusations of abuse that the guy doing the filming claims, but this film is not an indication of them one way or the other.
WTF?
I’m truly offended by the implication that there are no other options for these men to serve their communities other than by supporting, and belonging to, a hate ridden, and misogynistic, organization.
Religion poisons everything.
I disagree with the premise that there are “good” priests
It is like saying that there are “good” mobsters.
The Catholic Church has engaged in decades of felonious obstruction of criminal investigations, decades of harboring criminals, and decades of providing false evidence to investigators.
They are the ultimate candidate for a RICO prosecution.
And any participant in this criminal endeavor – whether directly or indirectly involved in the cover-ups – is equally guilty of benefitting from the criminal enterprise.