Church in the World

Brazil abuse findings denied

Americas

OFFICIALS FROM the Vatican and Brazil?s bishops? conference have denied any knowledge of a ?Vatican commission? that has reportedly found evidence of more than 1,700 cases of sexual abuse by priests, involving about 10 per cent of the total number of ordained clergy in South America?s largest country.

In response to widespread coverage in the Italian and Brazilian press, a Vatican spokesman last week told the National Catholic Reporter that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has responsibility for cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests, was not aware of any commission going to Brazil. The Brazilian bishops? conference (CBB) also told the NCR that it had no information about any such commission.

However, the Brazilian news magazine Isto? and the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera claim to have had access to the commission?s findings. Criminal charges of child abuse have been brought against four Brazilian priests in recent months, with three of them resulting in convictions. There are 10 priests already in prison after being convicted of child sexual abuse, and Isto? reported a further 40 were on the run from the authorities.

The magazine also claimed that, in at least two instances, priests eventually convicted of sexual abuse had previously been moved from one parish to another after complaints had been made about them. According to the same report, one emeritus bishop has been accused of sexual misconduct by a young priest whom he ordained. Perhaps even more alarmingly, the magazine claims that the alleged Vatican commission found that half of all Brazilian priests were failing to observe their vows of chastity, and 200 of them had been referred to psychiatrists for ?re-education?.

Most shocking are extracts from the diary kept by one of the convicted priests, Fr Tarc?sio Tadeu Spricigo. The magazine alleges that the diary set out 10 guidelines for identifying potential victims, specifying that they should be between seven and 10 years of age, male, from a poor background and preferably fatherless. The way to ensnare them, the magazine claims the diary said, was to offer guitar lessons, or service as an altar boy, and to present a serious, dominating, father-like image.
Colin Harding