Priest arrested for child porn in scandal-plagued Brazilian diocese

April 09, 2010

A month after a Brazilian bishop suspended three priests, one of them 82 years old, for alleged homosexual activity with teens and young men, a fourth priest of the diocese has been charged with child pornography.

“An investigation of [Father Benedikt Lennartz’s] residence revealed the existence of a computer hard drive with 1300 photographs of explicit sex scenes or pornography involving adolescents, most of them males,” according to a police statement.

“It saddens and humiliates us to think of the dramatic situation of the possible victims, and of the church being vilified because of the immoral behavior of one who should have been a teacher of the faith,” said Salesian Bishop Valério Breda of Penedo, a diocese with only 34 priests in 2004.

 

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Further information:

• Priest bust for child porn (AFP)
• Scandal in Brazil after priest’s alleged homosexual encounter shown on TV (CWN, 3/17/10)