Accused by dozens of women, former priest is convicted of raping a 3-year-old in Brazil
A former priest, who was accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women in Brazil, was sentenced last week to 24 years and nine months in prison for raping a three-year-old child in 2016.
The court also ruled that Bernardino Batista dos Santos, 78, will have to compensate the victim – who was not identified, given that the case is being handled under seal – at 30,000 Brazilian reais (about US$ 5,580).
The crime occurred during a visit to a country property that was owned by the former priest in the city of Tiros, Minas Gerais State. The girl told her mother what happened and a number of witnesses confirmed that they could hear the victim crying.
Dos Santos’s conviction was received with joy by Carolina Rocha, a 34-year-old lawyer who was also a victim of the former priest and has been an informal organizer of a group of women who made complaints against him.
“Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would see him convicted,” Rocha told Crux.
She said that she was abused by dos Santos in the same rural property in Tiros when she was just 8 in 1999.
She said Dos Santos would take advantage of every situation in order to abuse kids – trips to his ranch, meetings in his apartment or in the sacristy, confessions. Besides the work as a vicar, dos Santos was the principal of a private school connected to the parish.
“He always requested the children to get into the room alone with him in order to confess. That time, however, my mother went with me,” Rocha said.
She said that 73 victims have already talked to her about dos Santos’s crimes.
Only in 2024, when dos Santos was arrested for the first time – he remained in jail for one month – the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte looked for Rocha again, she said.
“Dos Santos began abusing children in 1975. Many victims take decades to open up their hearts about sex crimes like those,” she told Crux.
According to Oliveira, the victims’ ages ranged between 3 and 11 at the time the crimes happened. The majority of the victims were girls, but over the past few years a few men also claimed that they were abused by dos Santos.
She said the Archdiocese knew decades ago that dos Santos perpetrated abuse, but failed to act.
“We managed to obtain evidence that the Archdiocese knew what was happening since the beginning of the 2000s,” Oliveira claimed.
She said a collective lawsuit is being planned, involving not only the former priest but also the Church.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americ...-in-brazil
A former priest, who was accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women in Brazil, was sentenced last week to 24 years and nine months in prison for raping a three-year-old child in 2016.
The court also ruled that Bernardino Batista dos Santos, 78, will have to compensate the victim – who was not identified, given that the case is being handled under seal – at 30,000 Brazilian reais (about US$ 5,580).
The crime occurred during a visit to a country property that was owned by the former priest in the city of Tiros, Minas Gerais State. The girl told her mother what happened and a number of witnesses confirmed that they could hear the victim crying.
Dos Santos’s conviction was received with joy by Carolina Rocha, a 34-year-old lawyer who was also a victim of the former priest and has been an informal organizer of a group of women who made complaints against him.
“Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would see him convicted,” Rocha told Crux.
She said that she was abused by dos Santos in the same rural property in Tiros when she was just 8 in 1999.
She said Dos Santos would take advantage of every situation in order to abuse kids – trips to his ranch, meetings in his apartment or in the sacristy, confessions. Besides the work as a vicar, dos Santos was the principal of a private school connected to the parish.
“He always requested the children to get into the room alone with him in order to confess. That time, however, my mother went with me,” Rocha said.
She said that 73 victims have already talked to her about dos Santos’s crimes.
Only in 2024, when dos Santos was arrested for the first time – he remained in jail for one month – the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte looked for Rocha again, she said.
“Dos Santos began abusing children in 1975. Many victims take decades to open up their hearts about sex crimes like those,” she told Crux.
According to Oliveira, the victims’ ages ranged between 3 and 11 at the time the crimes happened. The majority of the victims were girls, but over the past few years a few men also claimed that they were abused by dos Santos.
She said the Archdiocese knew decades ago that dos Santos perpetrated abuse, but failed to act.
“We managed to obtain evidence that the Archdiocese knew what was happening since the beginning of the 2000s,” Oliveira claimed.
She said a collective lawsuit is being planned, involving not only the former priest but also the Church.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americ...-in-brazil
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
