Keywords by David Yonke

As reported in The Blade yesterday, Father Frank Murd resigned as pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Maumee, Ohio (a Toledo suburb) because he is under investigation for an alleged sexual crime involving an adult male.
You can read the article here.
The 65-year-old priest allegedly touched a male improperly in a hot tub at the Jewish Community Center in Sylvania.
The incident reportedly occurred March 18. Father Murd met with Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair on Monday and resigned on Tuesday. A letter was mailed out to the 6,600 parishioners on Thursday from the bishop.
Father Murd has been admitted to a residential treatment center.
The allegation is sketchy; police aren't saying much. The victim has not come forward to the media and maybe never will. But the fact that the priest is at a residential treatment center for spiritual remedies, evaluation and counseling is a strong sign that there is some substance to the charges.
If Father Murd had denied the allegations, based on my reporting experience as well as simple common sense, it seems the bishop would not have sent the priest away for evaluation and counseling.
The prosecutor said charges may not be filed.
It also would seem unlikely for Father Murd to resign as pastor of this large, prestigious church immediately, but in most cases would have been placed on administrative leave the police and probably a church investigation are conducted.
Those are not my personal judgments but straightforward observations based on previous incidents.
Time and the legal system will tell whether these allegations are credible.

Sylvania, Ohio
April 13, 2008

Here's part of the police report on Father Murd:

I wrote an article for Saturday's paper that was a tough one in many respects. It was about about Father Frank Murd and Father Tim Kummerer having been arrested in 1998 at a park for public indecency.

Father Francis "Frank" Murd

I personally don't like writing articles about priests' sexual indiscretions, especially ones that happened 10 years ago. But Father Murd was recently accused of sexual contact with a male and so this was relevant to that investigation. Father Kummerer's arrest just happened to be at the same park for the same crime around the same time as Father Murd's, and television news reported it on Thursday night, so therefore it was already a public issue.
My hope is that this kind of reporting will help the church clean up its act and live up to its promise of being open and honest and transparent.
I also believe the victims deserve to have their stories told. I am hoping Fr. Murd's victim will contact me so I can give his account. I tried calling the priests. I would be glad to speak to Fr. Murd or Fr. Kummerer and get their side of the story, if they were willing and had their attorneys' permission to talk. I don't think it's going to happen.
In addition, I hope these articles will serve a purpose in reminding priests and seminarians and ministers of their higher calling, and deter them from even thinking about committing such crimes or indiscretions in the future.
You can read the article about the priests here.
Toledo, Ohio
April 20, 2008

As reported in the local media, Father Frank Murd was arraigned in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday morning on charges of improper sexual contact with an adult male.
What timing: It was the Toledo diocesan priest's 66th birthday.
Judge James Jensen set a trial date for June 24.
I thought it was interesting that Father Murd has hired Thomas Aquinas Matuszak to represent him. Mr. Matuszak was the attorney who wrote the request for a search warrant for the Toledo Catholic Diocese when the prosecutor's office was trying to get the hidden files on Father Gerald Robinson.
* * *
I gave a talk last week in Kansas, Ohio, about my book. There were about 50 people in the audience in the Methodist church. Most of them had read "Sin, Shame & Secrets" and had a keen interest in the case and wanted to know more.
But there was one elderly woman who just scowled at me the whole night.
When it was time for questions, she said she felt that the DNA evidence should have exonerated Robinson. I explanained that only a minuscule amount of DNA was found at the crime scene and the evidence was contaminated because DNA was not used as a forensic tool in 1980 and no one preserved the crime scene for it. But she just frowned, shook her head, and said, "I just think he's innocent."
As the old saying goes, there's one in every crowd.

Toledo, Ohio
May 17, 2008

Note, Bishop Robinson spoke in Cleveland recently and local Catholic laypeople tried to arrange a Toledo speech but his schedule was too tight. This article was written by the Boston Globe's Michael Paulson, one of the finest religion reporters in the United States.-- D.Y.

Defying hierarchy, bishop urges change;
Sex abuse stand inspires liberals

By Michael Paulson,
Globe Staff

May 31, 2008

DEDHAM - He is an unlikely hero for the Catholic left: a retired Australian bishop who served for years as an aide to the very conservative cardinal-archbishop of Sydney.
But now Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is under investigation by the Australian bishops’ conference, and multiple American bishops are trying to ban him from their dioceses after he published a book suggesting the Catholic Church examine the roles that power and sex played in the clergy abuse crisis.
The Catholic left - whose weakened influence was captured in a Time magazine essay this month headlined “Is liberal Catholicism dead?” - has rallied to this little-known bishop, packing his speaking appearances and driving up sales of his book.
On Thursday night, Robinson drew a crowd of about 550 to St. Susanna Church in Dedham, which he said was the largest audience he has drawn on a US speaking tour that began earlier this month. On Wednesday night, 110 showed up to hear him speak at the Paulist Center in Boston.
“If we are ever to look to the future with a clear conscience there must first be profound change within the church,” Robinson told a rapt audience in Dedham at the start of a 60-minute talk, in which he questioned the extent of papal infallibility and the rationale for mandatory priestly celibacy. Perhaps most daringly, given the adulation directed toward Pope John Paul II since his death, Robinson repeatedly criticized the late pontiff for not taking enough action against clergy sexual abuse.
To those who despair of change within the church, he said, “Communism changed. Apartheid changed. It just may be the church might, too.”
Some people traveled to Dedham from New Hampshire three hours early to make sure they could get a seat, and the event had to be moved from the basement to the church nave to accommodate the crowd. Every copy of Robinson’s book sold out.
“The fact that this event attracted many hundreds of Catholics, large numbers of whom traveled many miles to attend, indicates to me that there is still significant dissatisfaction among the laity with the church’s response to the sex and cover-up crisis to date,” said Deacon Larry Bloom of the Dedham parish.
An ABC Washington Post poll conducted April 13 of this year said 73% of Catholics are not satisfied with the church’s response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.
Robinson is one of the first bishops since the abuse crisis to break ranks publicly and call for a discussion of the most sensitive issues in the Catholic Church. And the hierarchy responded swiftly. The Australian Bishops Conference issued a statement declaring “doctrinal difficulties” with Robinson, in particular what it described as his “questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively.” A top Vatican official and several American bishops asked him to cancel his trip to this country.
“Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God’s Word and the teachings of the church in his own Diocese,” Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, wrote in a letter to Robinson. “Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”
But where Robinson was denied Catholic venues, he found others.
On Long Island in New York, he spoke at a Unitarian Universalist parish, which waived its rental fee because, he said, the congregation viewed the bishop and his audience as “an oppressed minority.” In New Jersey he spoke at a Lutheran church; in southern California he is speaking at a university, a community center, and a hotel.
In New England, the bishops have been quieter. Robinson spoke at Fairfield University, a Catholic college in southern Connecticut, as well as at St. Susanna Church and the Paulist Center. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has declined several requests for comment.
At the same time, Voice of the Faithful, the reform organization founded in Wellesley, last week gave Robinson its top honor as a “priest of integrity.”
And Liturgical Press, the Catholic publishing house that is printing Robinson’s book, “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church,” said it sold out its first run, of 3,000 copies, and is rushing a second run into print.
“What’s significant here is that you’ve got a bishop who, once retired, decided he’d speak his own mind for a change - that rather than being part of the orchestra, he decided he wanted to do a solo,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “It’s clear there’s a real thirst among the laity and some priests for a more open discussion of issues in the church, and this is the kind of thing he’s trying to stimulate. But it’s not the kind of thing the Vatican or the majority of bishops want to see happen.”
The sympathetic crowds coming to hear Robinson are clearly heartened by his outspokenness. In Dedham, he was given two standing ovations.
“He understands that the crux of the Roman Catholic problem lies squarely with the Stalinist-style power structure of the institutional church,” said Peter Hartzel, a parishioner who lives in Dedham. “He honestly broached the ‘hot’ sexual issues with which the bureaucracy is unable to broach in a realistic manner.”
Robinson, 70, has spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the abuse crisis and meeting with victims.
In 1994, he was named to a committee charged with coordinating the response of the Australian Catholic Church to clergy sexual abuse, and from 1997 until 2003 he was the committee cochairman. Robinson said he is also a victim of childhood sexual abuse, although not by a priest.
Of his work with victims he said, “It was an experience that changed me in so many ways that even if I wanted to I could not now go back to being the person that I was before.”
Robinson said it is incumbent on Catholics to examine “institutional factors” that contributed to the abuse, as well as “the inadequate response to the abuse,” which, he said, “created at least as much scandal as the abuse itself.”
Robinson said that in an effort to prevent debate over mandatory celibacy, the Vatican had blamed gay priests for the abuse crisis.
“The scapegoat they found was priests whose sexual orientation was homosexual,” he said. He called that argument “mistaken” and said, “Homosexuals are no more likely to offend than anybody else,” and, “It’s an avoidance of the truth in order to protect papal authority.”
Robinson did not spell out solutions, but called for Catholics to use the moral force of the abuse issue to push for greater conversation about the church’s teachings regarding power and sex.
“All church leaders have at the very least been through a profound humiliation and embarrassment over this issue,” he said. “Deep within themselves they know that the popes have not given them the leadership they would have hoped for. However much they might pretend to the opposite, they also know that we still have a vast amount to do before we can look to the future with a clear conscience.”
He praised Benedict XVI for his statements about abuse during his recent trip to the United States, but called on Benedict to make a public apology to victims from St. Peter’s Basilica, surrounded by the cardinals.
And he called for the pope to commission a study of ways in which church teachings, including mandatory celibacy, may have contributed to the abuse, and for an investigation of institutional factors that contributed to the moving of abusive priests from one parish to another by bishops.
“He is living proof that bishops are not as united as they might be thought to be,” said Paul Lakeland, a professor of Catholic Studies at Fairfield. “They try to paint him as a lone dissenter, a good man who has gone slightly off the rails, but I think there are lots of other bishops quietly cheering him on from the sidelines.”

Photo below shows Bishop Robinson, center, receiving an award and the photo and award are not related to the Dedham speech on which Michael Paulsen reported.

* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 2, 2008

Briefly: The judge ruled today that Father Murd is not guilty of sexual imposition. While saying the priest's behavior was "repugnant," he said the victim did not flee or seek to repel the priest's advances and his groping.
* * *
Sylvania, Ohio
June 13, 2008

Here is a copy of the editorial that was published on Saturday, June 21, in The Blade regarding the Father Murd trial:

SEXUAL-abuse cases are usually highly emotionally charged. When a verdict is announced, it is very rare to have it accepted as fair by all sides. So it is no wonder that past victims of sexual abuse and their families find themselves distressed that a Roman Catholic priest was acquitted on a misdemeanor charge of sexual imposition. However, Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge James Jensen found that the prosecution failed to prove that the actions of the Rev. Frank Murd offended the victim. The judge then found the priest not guilty in a bench trial.
The accusation stemmed from a March incident involving a 27-year-old man at the JCC-YMCA in Sylvania Township. During a police interview, Father Murd, former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Maumee, initially denied that he inappropriately touched the man, but then admitted that he did and apologized. When the victim explained during the trial why he didn't immediately rebuff the priest, he said he was shocked by his actions and froze before objecting. The man asked a facility attendant for the identity of the priest. He went home and called his psychologist, who instructed him to notify police.

It's understandable that Judge Jensen was puzzled and bothered that nearly a full minute passed during the encounter and the man had not resisted, told the priest to stop, moved away from him, or left the hot tub. True, sometimes victims of inappropriate physical contact are so stunned by another's aggression that they don't take action until later. Could that have been what was going on here? After all, no matter what any of us says, none of us honestly knows how we would respond to a situation until confronted.

And though the judge was bound by the testimony he heard during the trial, he was not insensitive to the victim and said the verdict should not be misinterpreted. Neither is the outcome of the trial an attempt on the judge's part to score points with the Catholic community. In fact, Judge Jensen said the verdict should not be considered an "affirmation or verification" of the priest's behavior or interpreted to "impugn the character" of the man who claimed to have been victimized.

Whether Father Murd is again assigned as pastor or is named priest to a parish is now up to the Toledo Catholic Diocese. Father Murd - who returned to a residential facility where he went for treatment after he resigned from St. Joseph's - was acquitted of a crime because the judge found reasonable doubt that one occurred. But the diocese needs to exercise care in deciding his future role with the church, particularly in light of the sexual-abuse cases that have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

The Chicago Tribune published an article today in which Cardinal Francis George announced a $12.7 million settlement with 16 victims of clerical sexual abuse.
The cardinal also unveiled his own sworn deposition that, to quote the Tribune, "revealed a flawed and secretive system where priests and bishops employed by the archdiocese to this day protected their own."
Here is a link to the full article.

Last November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops elected Cardinal George to a three-year term as president starting in November, 2008.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
Aug. 13, 2008

I've been hearing about this story for more than a week now, because my daughter and her fiancee went to school in Australia and that's where this minister lives and is best known. But he's a globally known preacher, especially for writing the song "The Healer."
Nobody is perfect and lots of people hide flaws and bad habits, but how someone could present an image this far away from the truth defies logic. It just shows how things are not always what they seem and that you should never put your trust in any man or woman, only in God, because you're often going to be let down and hurt.
I've learned the hard way myself, having had several pastors in my life turn out to have been living double lives and deceiving their families and congregations. Nothing as bizarre as the story of Michael Guglielmucci, however.
(I don't know where this article was published, it was sent to me via email. I think it's from an Australian newspaper. I like to give credit when possible and googled the writer's name and found a Kim Wheatley who is a professor of English at William and Mary, but I don't think it's the same Kim Wheatley. At any rate, this is a well written article and I have verified virtually everything in it through official and reliable online sources.) -- David

By Kim Wheatley

August 26, 2008 08:00am

Michael Guglielmucci

* Pastor says he told cancer lie to hide porn addiction
* 'I'm addicted to the stuff, it consumes my mind'
* Pastor says profit from hit song will be handed over

DISGRACED pastor Michael Guglielmucci has finally told of fabricating a terminal cancer battle to hide his 16-year obsession with pornography.

"This is who I am ... I'm addicted to the stuff, it consumes my mind,'' he said of pornography in his first interview on Today Tonight since the story was first revealed on AdelaideNow last week.

"... I'm sick and this is why I had to come up some sort of explanation of what was happening in my body.''

The shame of his addiction manifested itself physically, resulting in him losing his hair and purging his body.

"I don't know how you can fake vomiting all over yourself night after night after night, I'm not that good an actor,'' he said.

To conceal the two-year cancer lie which he hid from his wife and family, he sent phoney emails to his loved ones from non-existent medical practitioners.

"I've been living a lie for a long time,'' he said.

"I've been hiding who I am for so long. "I can honestly say to you that the last two years have been hell for me physically, emotionally, but I never sat down and said ... let's try and fool the world.''

Today Tonight insisted that it did not pay for the interview from the man who has been in hiding and receiving psychiatric help since AdelaideNow revealed the web of lies last week.

Mr Guglialmucci, who claims to have written the hit song Healer after being inspired by God, also insisted that all monies received via song sales would be returned.

"I don't have any desire to attain any financial gain from that, we're already making stages to sign those royalties over,'' he said.

"I'm so sorry, not just for lying to my friends and my family even about a sickness, but I'm sorry for a life of saying I'm something I'm not ... from this day on I'm telling the truth.''

Mr Guglielmucci has written to Police Commissioner Mal Hyde offering to fully co-operate with any police inquiries into his fake illness.

A statement from Edge Church International General Manager Steve Hilder– sent to The Advertiser a short time ago - advises that the letter, written by Mr Guglielmucci's lawyer, says the police will be told "all pertinent information".

The statement also states that Mr Guglielmucci is an "itinerate minister who held a credential with the Australian Christian Churches"

"His credential was immediately suspended," it says.

"The National Executive of the ACC is taking this matter very seriously and is awaiting the results of the medical tests before determining the full extent of the discipline that will be imposed upon him.

"Michael Guglielmucci has not been a paid staff member of Edge Church for eight years.

"Michael has lived in three other states of Australia since leaving us and has been a minister on staff in two other churches since leaving our employ.

"He has not received any money from Edge Church International toward his alleged medical expenses."

The statement says the church understands a post office box will be set up in the name of his father, Danny Guglielmucci.

"Michael's lawyer has written to the Police Commissioner advising him of all pertinent information and notifying him of Michael Guglielmucci's intention to fully co-operate with police inquiries," it says.

"Edge Church is committed to the truth and honouring the people of our church. Our history has been one of integrity and openness. We love the people of our community (who) have been actively involved in trying to bring life and hope to the hurting and the needy and will continue to do so.

"Hope, truth and love is not just our motto, it is our life mission."

11 days for truth to emerge

Earlier, it emerged that it took 11 days before the pentecostal church exposed the details of pastor Michael Guglielmucci's fictitious battle with cancer.

Danny Guglielmucci, the father of the fallen pastor and founder of Edge Church International at Reynella, told his faithful followers yesterday the church went public at "our first opportunity".

The man at the centre of the scandal that has rocked the church, also spoke publicly for the first time yesterday. But his words only came in a written statement, which claimed the reason behind his fictitious cancer story was to hide his 16-year obsession with pornography.

"For over 16 years, I have struggled with an addiction to adult pornography. As a result of this secret life of sin my body would often break down," his confession began.

"Two years ago, I reported that I was suffering from cancer. The truth is that although I was ill, I did not have cancer but was again using the misdiagnosis to hide the lie that I was living."

The fallen preacher was a Christian superstar, who said God inspired his hit song Healer. The song became an anthem of faith for believers, many of whom donated money to the Guglielmucci cancer cause.

The church said it was unknown how much money had been raised deceptively through websites, preaching and song sales.

When asked by The Advertiser if he would go to the police, Danny Guglielmucci said he was seeking advice from church lawyers, but that an audit of accounts was taking place.

Danny Guglielmucci also said that the first he knew of his son's web of lies was on August 13.

Three days later, a meeting of the national executive of the Australian Christian Churches was convened at which his son confessed because of a dream of Jesus on the cross looking down at him saying "the truth will set you free".

At that meeting, a strategy was decided including seeking medical and legal advice. Michael Guglielmucci also agreed to take part in one exclusive TV interview.

It was only after a brief email from Hillsong Church in Sydney, which produced the hit album featuring Healer, was obtained by The Advertiser last Wednesday that church followers were finally allowed to know that the cancer was a lie.

The reason for that lie – Michael Guglielmucci's addiction to pornography – was exposed yesterday.

Danny Guglielmucci stood before 1200 people packed into the former indoor cricket arena for forgiveness, but maintained that he and the church had acted ethically.

"I have led you with openness and integrity and declare that we have not lived a lie before you," he said, before receiving a rousing ovation.

Michael Guglielmucci remained in hiding yesterday and is receiving psychiatric help.

Despite the betrayal, forgiveness was the catchcry for an overwhelming majority of those at yesterday's service.

"Obviously it was the wrong thing to do, but I'm proud that he's come out and admitted it," said 18-year-old student Daniel Sutherland.
* * *
While researching this item I found a website where people had been posting their thoughts and prayers for Michael Gugglielmucci, and at the end is a link to a thread where people posted their thoughts after finding out his illness was a hoax.
Here is a link to that website. It shows how much people care and how gullible we all can be.
* * *
Sylvania, Ohio
Aug. 27, 2008

This bizarre article was published today in a Dover, N.H., newspaper:

Priest's suit claims he found porn at Somersworth church

By AARON SANBORN
asanborn@fosters.com

Foster's Daily Democrat
Article Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008

DOVER — A lawsuit filed by a former Catholic priest claiming he found pornographic material in a Somersworth church remains pending at Hillsborough County Superior Court North.

The Rev. Thomas Cooper of Dover filed the suit against the Diocese of Manchester in 2007.

In the suit, Cooper alleges the diocese ignored complaints by him about the pornographic material.

In addition, the suit claims Cooper had information regarding Bishop John McCormack and Father Paul Shanley of Boston and that as soon as he began conducting his own investigation regarding the information, the diocese made false accusations toward him, leading to his eventual arrest and commitment to the New Hampshire State Hospital.

Shanley is a former priest involved in the Boston clergy sex-abuse scandal and was found guilty of statutory rape.

Overall, Cooper alleges 11 counts against the diocese, including defamation, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, wrongful discharge, false imprisonment, fraud and breach of contract.

Cooper's accusations began in October 2002, when he claims he discovered "large quantities of pornographic materials" in the church rectory and garage of a Somersworth church. Cooper was the pastor of the church at the time, according to the suit.

Among the items were guidebooks containing locations of homosexual meeting places nationwide and sexual attire consisting of leather and chains.

Cooper was told by the diocese to place the items in a sealed container and deliver them to the Chancery in Manchester, according to the suit. However, Cooper claims he continued to find the material at the church and continued to inform the diocese about these discoveries.

Cooper also claims he informed the diocese of reported incidents of sexual harassment of female staff at the Saint Ann Nursing Home in Dover, but claims the diocese never responded to those claims. In 2004, Cooper said he learned of "personal and highly sensitive information" relating to McCormack and Shanley and began to conduct his own independent investigation and alerted priests close to the diocese about the situation, according to the suit.

This is when Cooper claims the diocese accused him of stealing bingo funds, engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct of his own and threatening to commit suicide. Shortly after those accusations were made, Cooper says a Somersworth police officer arrested him because of statements he made to the diocese, according to the suit.

Following the arrest, Cooper was later transferred to the state hospital in Concord, where he was held "against his will" for seven days until a judge found he wasn't properly detained and ordered released.

The diocese later forced his resignation from the Somersworth church and fired him from a position at the Youth Development Center, Cooper claims in the suit.

According to published reports, the diocese claims Cooper misappropriated funds from two parishes in Somersworth and Rollinsford and threatened to commit suicide when confronted. The diocese also claims Cooper was granted a leave of absence for health reasons and resigned following an independent audit. Published reports also indicate half of Cooper's 11 counts were dismissed. Officials at Hillsborough County Superior Court would only say that the suit is still active and in the process of being scheduled for further hearings.

Brian Quirk, the attorney for the diocese, didn't return a call for comment on Monday.

The suit lists Cooper as living in Dover, but attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

* * *
Toledo, Ohio
Sept. 23, 2008

The way I see it, this news story from the Associated Press proves three things:
1. There are some really sick people in this world
2. Some of the worst abuses are by people who twist "religion" to justify their own demented behavior.
3. Truth is stranger than fiction. You can't make things like this up...
-- David
Police: Brazil boy stuck with needles in rituals

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The stepfather of a 2-year-old boy found with 42 sewing needles in his body confessed to jabbing them into the toddler during a month of rituals with a lover who he claimed received instructions through trances, Brazilian police said Thursday.

Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, a 30-year-old bricklayer, told detectives the woman went into trances and would "command him to stick the needles in the boy's body," police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The woman, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, paid to have the needles measuring up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) blessed by a woman who practices the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble and convinced Magalhaes that inserting them into the boy would somehow allow them to be together, Santana said. Police, however, believe she was out for revenge on the mother.

The two held sessions every few days over a full month in which Magalhaes stuck the needles into the boy several at a time, Santana said.

"According to his confession, he acted under influence of the woman, but it was he who stuck the needles in the boy's body," the inspector said. Magalhaes and dos Santos were arrested, though no charges have yet been filed.

Dos Santos is not believed to be a member of any religious or occult group, and authorities believe she came up with the idea of the rituals on her own, Santana said.

Authorities also detained the woman who blessed the needles so she could be questioned, but Santana said he expects she will be released without charge because she did not know how they were being used.

Magalhaes denied involvement when he was first questioned on Monday, but confessed after police detained him on Wednesday, Santana said.

An enraged crowd of more than 100 people surrounded and hurled rocks at the police station in the small northeastern city of Ibotirama, where the suspects were held Wednesday night. Santana said they broke out a window of his own car because they wrongly believed the suspects were in it.

Extra police were called in to restore order and protect the suspects. They were then taken to an undisclosed lockup for their own protection, and it was not immediately clear whether they had legal representation.

The child was airlifted to a hospital in northeastern Brazil on Thursday because two of the needles are close to his heart, but it was not immediately clear when doctors might be able to remove them.

Surgeons in the city of Barreiras in Bahia state, where the boy had been hospitalized since Sunday, had decided not to try to remove any needles immediately for fear they could cause more damage.

Doctors located 42 needles in the boy, who was in stable condition after a 240-mile (390-kilometer) flight to the hospital in the coastal city of Salvador that has a special heart unit.

Hospital spokeswoman Susy Moreno said an evaluation of when to perform surgery on the boy probably would not be finished until Friday. He was in an intensive care unit but was conscious, had undergone a battery of X-rays and was receiving antibiotics, a hospital statement said. While the boy was admitted with some internal bleeding, the blood was drained and he did not appear in imminent danger of more bleeding.

The boy's mother, a maid, took him to a hospital in Ibotirama, population about 25,000, on Dec. 10, saying he was complaining of pain.

After X-rays revealed the cause, the mother told police she didn't know how the needles got inside her son, whose name was not released because of his age.

Police and doctors concluded it would have been impossible for the boy to have ingested the needles — which have been also been found in a lung, his left leg and spread throughout his abdomen.

Afro-Brazilian religions practiced in Brazil have no ceremonies, rituals or practices involving harm to people, said Nelson Inocencio, director of African-Brazilian studies at the University of Brasilia.

He worried that the incident could hurt the image of the religions, of which Candomble is the most popular, and concentrated most in Bahia state.

"African religions in Brazil suffer from prejudice and discrimination," he said. "What happened to this boy without a doubt could feed into the prejudice against Afro-Brazilian traditions."