[Updated 12:15 p.m. ET] A Polish-born priest accused of sexually abusing minors in his parochial residence in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has turned himself in, state officials said Saturday.
State security officials said Marcin Michal Strachanowski, 44, surrendered to authorities Friday night in the village of Realengo.
State Civil Police had issued a "preventative arrest" warrant against Strachanowski on Thursday. The priest is accused of handcuffing a minor in 2006 and forcing him to perform sexual acts at his home in the Divino Espirito Santo church in Rio de Janeiro's west zone, the officials said.
In a press statement, the Rio de Janeiro archdiocese said it has suspended Strachanowski from his duties and that in addition to the criminal inquiry, the church has called on a ecclesiastic tribunal to oversee a canonical trial.
"The archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro laments the incident, especially for the people involved, especially for the possible victims, and clarifies that the mentioned clergyman already finds himself suspended of his parochial functions," the statement said.
According to Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, the priest could not be found Friday morning.
The newspaper reported that a 16-year old alleged victim told investigators that after being frequently raped by the priest, he was forced to remain silent and was threatened regularly.
Citing court statements, the newspaper reported that criminal Judge Alexandre Abrahao Dias Teixeira said police investigations revealed the profile of a man with a "compulsive attraction to having sex with adolescents" and that he had allegedly turned his parish residence into an "erotic dungeon" where he forced boys to have sex with him.
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Wow, its amazing how all of you can sit here and argue about religion. The article is about some sick freak raping a little boy, and all you guys can do is wast your time posting all this bs??? Tom, you need to get a life, go watch TV or workout or something!
A good and loving God.
Where?
One good example is all I need and you'll win me over, Bible thumpers.
Okay let's be scientific for a moment. Let's assume that the universe with its great orderliness and marks of design was designed and created by God. I assume this is just as tenable as life spontaneously arising from a molten ball of rock floating in space.
Now this Creator that gives and sustains the lives of humans through involuntary functions like breathing and our hearts beating patiently endures the insults heaped upon Him and the disregard for his benefits by His Creatures. Instead of punishing these unthankful creatures He instead dies in their place to pay the penalty for their open rebellion against Him. He gives life and strength to the believer and the non-believer. He grants mercy to mankind by not carrying out the penalty of death against their every act of rebellion.
Now since you do not believe God's revelation of Himself you will deny these things but you have your proof. Christ was nailed to a cross on Calvary for Dan's sins instead of Dan. Christ willingly took Dan's place so that Dan would have an opportunity to repent and believe the Gospel and escape the punishment that Dan rightfully deserves. That sounds loving to me. Especially considering how Dan feels about God.
You know, even Jesus Christ the acclaimed "Son of Man" questioned God's intentions on the cross. That's enough for me.
@ Equality
The universe is what it is. It is the human mind which projects "great orderliness" and/or "marks of design" onto it.
@Equality
How does Christ's death on the cross pay for my sins. Isn't that like invading Iraq because Saudi Arabians flew planes into the WTC?
Dan, Gordo, Pablo
I thought all of those bible thumpers were nuts!! But I read the Bible from cover to cover.
Then I asked God to show me the truth that He exists. If He really existed, then He would show me the truth.
If He really loved me and this Christ really died for me, then I would be told the truth. Being a scientist,
I could have just moved on in a heartbeat, but He showed me the truth. Stop listening to arguments with
'bible thumpers' and read the book for yourself and seek the truth.
Do they teach the art of SCROTUM MASSAGING and EFFECTIVE METHODS TO THREATEN CHILDREN WITH HELL IN AN EFFORT TO FONDLE THEIR GENITALS.......in divinity school? Isn't that a PREREQUISITE?
There's a WORST REVEREND somewhere in the world and someone has an appointment to see him tomorrow. Cover your SCROTUM and STAY SEATED!!!
Well, I sure don't see humanists getting arrested repeatedly for raping children.
Oh, I forgot, that's being suppressed by the liberal media. LOL
And most of the atheists I know are pretty conservative politically.
Their all practical humanist no matter what they claim to be in theory. They demonstrate by their actions that they are firm believers in humanism. They are concerned only with self-realization and they reject religious moral instructions that declare their actions to be worthy of divine judgment and the reject the supernatural because they fulfill their own lusts with out concern for God's condemnation of their actions. They are purely humanist and they are the only human whose pleasure they are concerned about.
Edit "Their" should be They are. That's what I get for typing, talking, and viewing a video at the same time. LOL
Equality, I agree with your earlier post, amazingly, but throughout the centuries if the great scientists and thinkers didn't profess to be Christian, they would have been ostracized and never able to come up with all the cool stuff we have now.
Dan let us give these great thinkers the benefit of the doubt and say that they were honest and brave people as well. We have no right to invalidate their beliefs in order to validate our own. We don't need to change history we just need to learn from it. Thanks for the civil response.
Religion is the mother of all evil in the world.
Right you are DG. God Himself will judge all religions at the end of human history.
Google Revelation 18 and read about it. Only a personal relationship with Christ
will stand the test of time. Religion is an abomination in the eyes of God.
Religion is a copout on reality! Deal !
Amen to that Chartoff! Religion is a man-made ploy for power grabbing.
Reading the Bible, following Jesus Christ, and sharing your love with others
is a beautiful way to live before meeting God for eternity. God Himself stated His
hatred for religion. His religion was "taking care of the widow and orphan" and
having humans truly love Him through a personal relationship and not smoke and mirror
rituals.
@Equality7-2521 – If it wasnt for Galileo (whom your Church burnt at the stake) – you would still believe the earth is flat and the sun rotates around us.
and dont get me started on Einstein and Darwin and Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson and Socrates and and and.
If it wasn't far Darwin people would not have considered my ancestors to be subhuman and the least evolved of the human race. These people would not have felt justified by science in owning, beating, raping, and killing my ancestors simply because someone postulated that they were not the favored race and could therefore be exterminated or used as the favored highly evolved European race saw fit.
Here is a Bible quote predating Galileo "It is he that sitteth on the circle of the earth..." Isaiah 40:22 written in 712 BC. I assume you see the earth described as a circle which would be round not flat.
Dont' get started uberdork. I really don't think it would be productive for us to continue. We would simply prove that there are productive citizens who have been and are Christians as well as Atheists. It would only unravel the argument that all Christians are stupid and we don't want to do that. –smile–
Dear Equality, of course Christians and Atheists can both be "productive citizens".
The problem, however, is that while you were sitting around trying to get all your knowledge from the Bible, you must have missed Geometry 101, where they would have explained to you very clearly that a 'circle' and a 'sphere' are not one and the same.
JJ you are being funny, I hope. If not, that is the weakest attempt to refute a clear reference to the earth geometric shape dating back to the 700's BC. I don't know of any Christian that gets all of their knowledge from the Bible. It is the revelation of God not the revelation of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. Those things that can be proven with empirical evidence I happily embrace but things such as the hypothesis of evolution that have no empirical evidence I reject.
I am still laughing at your reference to Geometry. That is as funny as the folks who site references to sunrise or sunset in the Bible as scientific error and then watch the news every evening so that the meteorologist (scientist) can tell him what time the sun will rise and set. Funny Stuff!
All believers are Atheists to all other religions. If you believe in one – you dont believe in any of the others. Thus everyone, eventually is some sort of Atheist whether they like it or not. QED
This is all quite amazing. Surprising how it all keeps going back and forth about who's right and who's wrong. The main focus of this article is how someone in power (which happens to be a religious leader), used that power to take advantage of a (very young) follower (also know as congregation member). A very sad and disgusting act, and it's even more disturbing that this continues to happen globally and nothing really seems to get done about it. But it's mankind being mankind at it's worst.
One thing I've never quite understood about Catholicism is the religious leaders having to be single. Look around every other Christian group, the faith leader always has some form or partner to share his/her life with. Kinda funny when in the Bible it states to be fruitful and multiply (referring to finding a partner and having a family). Strange how all throughout the Bible "couples" are everywhere. People aren't meant to be alone, they need to have someone to share life with. Clearly, being human has feelings and emotions one needs to deal with and not allowing them to be had clearly (as we've seen over and over again) is not the answer.
Another interesting thing I've discovered while going through comments is that no one is really willing to actually listen to one another. More about just pointing the finger and blaming. Sad that we humans can see eye to eye on the simple fact of being human and enjoy the company, friendship or just passing of other humans. Religions, race and differences divide our species, and for what???? I feel it's important to have something to believe in or some belief system, even if it does base itself on that of being human and living life daily. Even though it's not religious, it's still a belief. Atheist or Religious, we're all still human.
Growing up in a religious household taught me a lot, as did moving down South to the Bible belt. Even within "Christianity" it's so divided and groups within that sector believe other sectors are wrong and are going to hell. Very interesting I think, because they all are supposed to share a common belief........yet, strangely feels like they don't because it's gotten lost somewhere with separating each others differences out.
What about other religions, why can't they be right? Why can't being human be a reason enough to celebrate and enjoy? Hasn't there been enough time lost with all this fighting and arguing about who's right and who's wrong? If we'd all (as in humans) take the moment to just enjoy our fellow humans, wouldn't it be a much more interesting world than trying to constantly divide?
One final note: Funny, but no matter how hard people try to sway other peoples' beliefs....you really can't change the what people genuinely believe. Those thoughts are part of who they are; it's hard to shatter a solid foundation.
I converted to Roman Catholicism in 2006 and love it. I was raised a Protestant. You ask many questions and answer them with non-Catholic answers. Rather than guess at the answers with your non-Catholic mind, why don't you come and see? Attend RCIA at any local Catholic Church this week and learn what we really believe.
Hey Pauline!
I'm just speaking in general. I have nothing against different beliefs. I feel they make the world more interesting. And you are right, I wasn't brought up Catholic; but now I've grown more into my own (whole different topic).
However, I had cousins that were and I have been involved in many Catholic services, classes, ect....
My main point is that this happens in many religions as it does in the non religious. I am not here pointing fingers at religious or non, this just happens to be a Catholic Priest in this situation, sorry if I offended you. I just found it interesting that people get more involved with religion and belief bashing than the horror of what the article was actually about.
I do have to say thank you for a pleasant and thought out response! And I agree with your cat statement...we all have something within our bodies that makes us each unique.
There is no "solid foundation" to religious belief. If there was, obviously all children would grow up with an inherent belief in the same religion and same god. Instead, religious belief of the family's version is "groomed" into children at their early formative stages by adults, led on by the self-interested religious group leaders.
Thoughtfool you must have been reading the Bible because that is exactly what it says. People do not naturally seek after God but instead they naturally hate God and rant against God and those who have repented and believed the Gospel.
Travisty
Why not all other religions? Google John 14:6. Christ stated that no one comes to the Father except by Christ.
That is something that got into my spirit when I accepted the call to follow Jesus. Christianity isn't supposed to
be a religion (although man fouled that up too). Christianity is a way of life.
Equality,
I get a bunch of rhetoric about Christ nailed to the cross for my sins and that's the proof you offer? Too many people suffering worse fates than Jesus had to endure. Leukemia, starvation, and stillbirth come to mind. Wish I could jump on your bandwagon, but I guess I'm a realist.
By the way, you sound like a good guy and I appreciate the debate. I have to go for a half hour but if you're still here maybe we could resume.
Hi Dan, Christ not only endured the physical pain of lashes and crucifixion, but also
the spiritual pain of having every human's sins, past, present and future place upon
him in one moment and He had never sinned. I am not sure we will ever know what they
feels like.
revelation 18:4 get out of her my people if you do not want to share in her sins!
Why should my children pay for a piece of fruit they never ate?
Why is it that we look at the Greek Gods and call that mythology, but a talking snake sounds completely legit?
Gordo, we all pay because God's law applied to each one of us individually.
Unfortunately sin was let into the world at the Garden of Eden, but do you really
think that Gordo and Eve or Tim and Eve would have never sinned?
My cat is sitting in another part of my home right now. Do you think that she knows that 200 ft. away, cars are traveling on the highway, people are heading to evening events, and I'm here typing on my computer? No, she doesn't know. Why? Because she is limited by her body and mind. Just as cats, we humans are limited by our brains. Just like with my cat, there is easily an entire "other world" out there that we physically are unable to be aware of, just as she is unaware of anything going on outside of our home.
Food for thought for all those who don't believe that we are spiritual beings who inhabit human bodies.
Scientologist, right?