Police in Brazil are investigating three Catholic priests accused of abusing several altar boys and seminarians. The former bishop of their diocese, who resigned in May, is also under investigation for having allegedly extorted money from them in exchange for his silence. The Brazilian press has been covering the accusations against Father Pedro Leandro Ricardo, from the city of Americana, since January, when the police opened investigations against him for cases of sexual abuse and he was suspended from his parish.
In May, Bishop Vilson Dias de Oliveira of Limeira resigned after the police and press reports said the Vatican started investigating him for extortion, unjust enrichment and abuse cover-up. In the story, Ricardo was accused by six former altar boys and seminarians β all of them minors at the time of the alleged events β of having inappropriately touched them before or after Masses. The testimony includes graphic descriptions. A former altar boy, Ednan Vieira, 35, told the magazine that he was 17 when Ricardo asked him to sleep at the parish house because he would celebrate a Mass the next morning.
Vieira claims the priest gave him wine and, wearing only boxer shorts, started to masturbate in front of him and then asked him to perform oral sex. Valentin also accused Negro of abuse, saying the Limeira priest exchanged money for sex while Valentin was in seminary. After Revista Veja published the story, a seventh victim came forward and told the magazine that when he was an year-old seminarian, Ricardo used to hug him and touch his penis during confession.
Another victim of the priest, who described how Ricardo touched his penis while driving his car, also accused Rocha, a priest from the city of Araras. According to the man, Rocha molested him over the course of a year, when he was He was a poor teenager, raised by a single mother, who was the cleaning woman at the church.
The priest sent him away from the parish when he resisted the abuse. Meanwhile, Negro was also accused by a woman, who claims that he tried to seduce her when she was 16 and was looking for a job. According to the woman, Negro invited her home, promising he would get her a position as his assistant, and gave her wine. Nothing happened that night, but the priest allegedly told her he would like to meet with her other times.
