[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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Just to put this outhere, think what you will of it. This is more inresponse to the " all atheists are unhappy" comment. I happen to atheist and I am so by my own chosing. I was raised a baptist, and for a good portion of my life believed it because I was told that was what I was supposed to do. However there came a point where I looked at the place I was, and saw that what they practised and what they taught were not the same. So I took the things that I believed were the best aspects of what they taught and left the diety out of it. If there is a God, the higher power would be ashamed that people belittle, vitimise, abuse and dominate others and then hide behind the name of their religion. Instead, I live with the thought of helping my fellow passengers of life anyway I can, and do it in the name of humanity and equality. To be honest, I am a better, happier person without religion telling be a "good" person. I may very well be the happiest Athiest on earth, but I am because I chose to be.
Tom – Atheists don't bother to state their beliefs because they know the futility of trying to convince someone who believes in an imaginary friend that it's actually a myth. There is no afterlife spent floating around in the clouds playing your harp or, in the case of Islam, 72 virgins, (how long will they stay virgins and what happens once they aren't?) and rivers of milk and honey. Once you are dead, that's it – game over. Knowing this, I try to live the best life I can. I try everyday to do an unexpected kindness for another human being, even if it's only a small kindness. Each act of kindness makes me feel happy. To say that atheists are miserable only tells me you don't actually know any atheists. I am happy to leave you to your imaginary friend, but don't attack me or anyone else simply because I think your belief is utterly foolish.
Well spoken, but sadly, it will fall on deaf ears. Religious nuts have to demonize atheists because we are a threat to the very core of their beliefs. When your entire belief system is built on faith and what has been taught to you from early childhood by your parents, all that without a single shred of evidence to support those beliefs, it is part of them. They can no more believe atheists can be good people than I can believe they are going to float away to heaven when they die. But it's darn nice to hear there are others out there who share my beliefs.
TTommy you are mistaken. I am a born again Christian, which means I am not following some childhood brainwashing but this is a faith that I arrived at in my adulthood. I do think there are good, moral, kind people that are atheists. I have a friend that is an atheist who introduced me to the writings of Vonnegut which I enjoy and I have introduced him to the writings of Bunyan which he enjoys. We have discussed my beliefs and his beliefs in depth without hostilities and tolerance for each others views. I do not refer to his beliefs as the pontificating of arrogant humanity and he does not refer to my beliefs as fairy tales. He was honest enough to admit that the method of reconciliation that God presents to man through the vicarious death of God the Son is beautiful and compelling. He simply says that he refuses to believe it. He would no more expect me to talk to him and not speak of Christianity than I would expect him to talk to me and not speak of Marxism. He is currently a linguist pursuing a Phd and I am a leader in a Christian church.
The rational of atheists presents no threat to Christianity. Atheists place their faith in the writings of one man in a science journal while I place my faith in the writings of the New Testament that currently have over 6,000 existent supportive manuscripts and manuscript portions. This is over 5,990 supportive manuscripts than Caesars' Gallic Wars which is accepted as historically accurate.
The problem is that your fellow atheists have demonstrated no respect for believers in this post. It is simply hard to believe that the person that does not have enough courtesy to speak respectfully of your beliefs is a nice person. I just happen to write off most people who post in places like CNN and Yahoo as shock posters. Many of them have very little knowledge they are just trying to get their friend that is looking over their shoulder to laugh. So I just enjoy the laugh with their friend and ignore their Ad Hominem attack since it is nothing more than the last agonies of a dead argument.
Equality7-2521 – You obviously need to believe in a God for one reason or another. That's your call. I just don't get it.
Yes my reason TTommy is that historic evidence and empirical evidence in my life make belief in God essential for me to be honest. Now on the other hand TTommy, I have no problem with your choosing not to believe any more than I have a problem with my friend that chooses not to believe. I have explained to him that part of my responsibility as a believer is to obey God's command to tell others of His means for man to be reconciled to God and that includes him and every other person on earth. You will never believe that he said he has no problem with me talking to him about what I believe concerning God because I have the same right to pursue my belief as he has to pursue his non-belief. You don't find too many atheist like that. That is true tolerance and I guess that is why I consider him a true friend.
Religion is obviously a great comfort and inspiration to many fine and caring people. It's the hypocrisy that gets to me. A congressman just quit because he was preaching abstinence and family values while playing hide the salami with one of his congressional staff. He said "I have sinned against God and my wife." He did not say "I am a flaming hypocrite, and compete fraud and a pathetic human being."
As usual when Republicans like this get exposed, they say they are weak and the Devil made them do it and they have failed. When in fact the were succeeding: in getting the gratification they quite cynically sought after until they got caught.
Preists all around the world should get together and FUKK each other. And you ask how can I say such a thing?? Because little by little we are finding out that "priests" are nothing but child molesters. Amen to that! No offense jesus your not a child molester.
This guy Tom probably has an average IQ comparable to Chimpanzees. Kid, increase your IQ by 50 points or so and then talk to us 'atheist libs'. It's a waste of time to be arguing with a fool.
You don't see people getting this angry about anything else. There is something about religion – particularly Christianity that makes non-believers so outright angry that they never stop to give it a try. We've accepted the 'facts' written down in our science books concerning things that us ordinary people will never witness; yet, we take it all at face value. As I've pursued higher education I realize just how little is known in every scientific field and just how much of what we learned as children are just 'theories' that some people happened to come up with. If we can believe in the statements of scientists who claim what we (as well as they) have never seen, why not take a moment to try and take in what the Bible has to say as if it were a text book. In my opinion, such outright and extreme rejection comes from the fear of being proven wrong – maybe its time to explore other aspects of life and live life strong and without the fear of being proven wrong – isn't discovery and realization what Atheists and their logic pride themselves in? Take a chance, and if its not for you, then at least you'll know what it is exactly you're always arguing so angrily against.
I'm not angry, it's just not for me.
Why do you assume they just haven't tried it? Do you realize how hard it is to avoid it? Anywhere in America or the world for that matter?
I'm a recovering Catholic who studied the bible and believed for most of my life.
I'm angry because I wasted so much time with that garbage, not because I don't know or understand.
How condescending can you be?
Dot, Dot, Dot,
I will guarantee you that MOST people who are non-religious have at some point in their past "given it a try"...that's EXACTLY why they are non-believers now. I can't tell you how many people I know who are atheists, agnostics, or simply supporters of doing away with religion, who weren't brought up Catholic, or some other brand of Christianity, or brought up Muslim. In fact, I cannot name one person I know who is a non-believer now who WASN'T at one point religious. They are simply choosing to walk away from religion because of its destructive nature (I would think Catholics in particular are leaving the church because of, as Shane put it, it's supposed to be a "force of good", but they are sheltering evil, and the two ideas cannot co-exist side by side).
The difference is in science you can see the results time and again..... you need a better argument. I believe because I was raised to believe. I am giving my children a choice.
the catholic church is a cult pure and simple!!!!!!!!!!!! so many unscriptual rituals it boggles the mind
Like? Which ones?
You can be religous or spiritual I support the latter
Religion poisons everything
Also, people should not group Christians all together as they have done with the priests. The bible does not support their position – Catholicism has many positions/rituals that are not biblically stated. Just as there are social delinquents in the society at large, there are always problematic individuals who tend to do things that in no way represents the population. If we can look at these priests and say that Christians are messed up, then we can just as easily look at society (which is full of child molesters) and say that the human race – or Americans, or any race/ethnic group for that matter – is messed up.
Soooooo typical, not surprised at all.
I honestly don't know whether to pity or envy Tom below. In a strange way, I wish I had been brainwashed from an early age (as Tom surely was) to believe in an invisible friend in the sky. I would be totally non-questioning of even the most absurd and religious beliefs without a shred of evidence. I wouldn't have to question or wonder why my God could allow such incredible cruelty in the world. I could take up the battle "My God is better than your God" and condemn and ridicule atheists who don't believe in a God at all. But I was cursed with the ability to think for myself from an early age and given the power of reason and common sense. So in the end, who really came out ahead?
I am always surprised at the intellectual superiority displayed by people who don't believe God exists. That debate has raged for thousands of years and some of the great minds in history have stood on both sides. I am all for people believing as they wish, as long as they can support it with arguments, but please stop with the snobbery.
Shane, I think you should re-read what you wrote. Christians (many of them, not all) are all about snobbery. You cannot count on hundreds of fingers and toes the amount of times I've heard a Christian say that if you don't believe in God you're going to hell. Really? That certainly sounds like snobbery to me. It sounds like a special club that doesn't let anyone in who isn't exactly like they are!
And as for "supporting your arguments" – support your own argument – prove that God exists...
Here is my problem with the Catholic church as an organization on this issue: If, as asserted, they are vehemently opposed to what all these priests are doing... why are they not turning them over to the authorities each and every time? Why are they insisting on secrecy and ecclesiastical courts?
Every decent person I know feels these people should be crucified (forgive the pun) but the Catholic church seems to be more interested in 1.) At best, protecting it's image 2.) At worst, providing aid, comfort and opportunity for these people. If they are so outraged, why do they protect these people? At what point does the Catholic church do the right thing and turn these people and all evidence over?
Really... how can you claim to be a force of good while sheltering evil?
I agree with you Non-Beliver. That is the problem.
The Catholic Church is no more a cult than Islam or Judaism.