Two Catholic Priests Lost Their Jobs For Having Oral Sex Near a Children’s Playground
This post is also available in: ไทย
Today brings the news of another sex scandal in the Catholic Church, but at least this time, all the participants were consenting and of age. Two Chicago-area priests were arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday for performing oral sex on each other in a car. As the news broke, the Archdiocese of Chicago cut all ties with the oral sex priests.
Fathers Diego Barrio, 39, and Edwin Giraldo Cortez, 30, were arrested on Labor Day for lewd and lascivious behavior after they were caught performing oral sex in a car. Cortez has also been charged with indecent exposure. The oral sex priests were caught at around 3:30 p.m. in Miami Beach. The officers noted that the car’s windows were not tinted, and thus they were in full view of pedestrians. Police also said the priests were near a children’s playground in a nearby park.
The two men were so into the sex act, they didn’t notice the officer watching them. According to Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez, “We observed the two males performing the sex act, the officer had to tap on the window to get their attention.” Both men were arrested without incident.
When the news of the oral sex priests’ arrest broke, the Archdiocese of Chicago which employed the men said they had cut ties. Berrio was the pastor of the Mission San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois; Cortez was an extern priest from Soacha, Colombia who served at Chicago’s St. Aloysius Parish during August. Cortez was set to return home to Colombia on Wednesday.
According to a statement from the Archdiocese of Chicago, Berrio has been removed from ministry, effective immediately. The Archdiocese has told Cortez’s home diocese about the incident and said that it’ll not grant him additional faculties to minister in the Archdiocese.
Bond was set for the two priests: $250 for Berrio and $1,500 for Cortez, due to the additional charge.
