Brazil priest breaks news of fatherhood during mass

BRAZIL
AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO — A priest in northeastern Brazil stunned his parishioners by announcing during mass that he would soon become the father of a little girl and leave the priesthood.

Father Geronimo Moreira, from the small town of Gaviao in Bahia state, said he fell in love with a local girl and got her pregnant.

“With time we noticed that our friendship had something more: love, but we always sought to leave it at the level of friendship,” the 32-year-old priest said in a letter he read to the faithful during mass last Sunday.

“I said that if I could not keep my vow of celibacy, I would first leave the priesthood so as not to create a scandal in the community,” he said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.