Rio de Janeiro, Aug 26 (EFE) A Catholic priest who was arrested three weeks ago for trying to sexually abuse a 14-year-old boy is suffering from AIDS, according to medical exams whose results were published by the Brazilian press.
The Rev. Josean Dantas Rolim, 51, was arrested Aug 6 after showing his genitals and kissing the teenager on the mouth in the bathroom of a bus station in the northeastern city of Recife.
He forced the boy to accompany him to the bathroom by insinuating that he was armed, according to the victim, but was seen by guards at the terminal, who stopped him from going through with the abuse.
When he was taken to jail and fearing that he would himself become the victim of sexual abuse by other inmates, the priest said he had AIDS, a claim that was borne out by the medical exams to which he was submitted.
O Globo newspaper said the positive result of the AIDS exam was confirmed by the Brazilian Bishops Conference.
The bishops said that the priest apparently contracted the disease before his ordination in 1990.
He is confined to a psychiatric ward of a detention centre, since the doctors who saw him diagnosed him as suffering from “mental disturbances”.
Dantas Rolim was suspended from his duties as a parish priest in the city of Petropolis six months ago due to his mental problems, the bishops conference said.
