Brazil: House arrest for priest on sex tape

An 83-year-old Brazilian priest detained on allegations of sexually abusing young boys has been moved from jail to house arrest and authorities told a newspaper published Wednesday they are investigating allegations his accusers extorted money from him.

Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa was taken into custody Sunday after an investigation by Brazil’s legislature produced allegations that he molested former alter boys, some as young as 12.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to file charges.

A police spokesman in the city of Arapiraca in northeastern Alagoas state said Barbosa was transferred from jail to house arrest late Tuesday. The spokesman did not give details, but Barbosa’s lawyers argued that he should not remain in jail because of his age and because they said he did not represent a flight risk.

Meanwhile, Daniel Fernandes, a lawyer for Barbosa, told Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that two men who said they were molested by Barbosa when they were younger extorted $23,000 from the Roman Catholic priest last year. They had threatened to release a video showing him having sex with a third young man, the lawyer said.

The video was made public last month and aired on the SBT television network. That ignited an investigation into Barbosa and two other priests in his diocese.

Bishop Valerio Breda of the Penedo archdiocese said after the video’s release that all three priests had been suspended and the church was conducting its own investigation.

Police inspector Maria Sousa told Folha de S. Paulo that an investigation was opened into the alleged extortion.

Calls to prosecutors and Fernandes’ office rang unanswered Wednesday, a national holiday in Brazil. The police spokesman said he had no information on the extortion claims or investigation into them.

The case is the latest in a series of abuse scandals to hit the church in Latin America.

On Tuesday, Chile’s bishops asked pardon for past cases of abuse. A priest in Chile was charged recently with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including a girl he had fathered.

Also Tuesday, a Mexican citizen filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. federal court in California against former priest Nicolas Aguilar Rivera and the Roman Catholic cardinals of Mexico City and Los Angeles, claiming they moved the priest between the two nations to hide abuse allegations.

An advocacy group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the plaintiff alleges Aguilar Rivera molested him in the mid-1990s when he was 12.