Tarcisio Tadeu Spricigo

Tarcisio Tadeu Spricigo is a former Brazilian Roman Catholic priest who molested children in at least five parishes in Brazil. Spricigo was moved repeatedly due to allegations of child molestation finally winding up in a parish in the very impoverished and tiny community of Annapolis in Central Brazil in 2002. Spricigo was first accused of sexual abuse in 1991. He was moved at least four times following that first allegation, and continued to abuse in each parish to which he was appointed. When he was moved to Annapolis, Spricigo was facing criminal charges of child abuse in Sao Paulo. The Bishop who appointed Spricigo to the parish was aware of the police investigation when he made the appointment. The Bishop has since made a statement that he believed Father Spricigo to have been cured. In Annapolis, Father Spricigo lived three doors away from a family with a five year old boy to whom he began giving guitar lessons. It came to the attention of the family that the boy was being molested by Father Spricigo when he woke his grandmother up one morning and told her, "Granny, I know how to make love." The Catholic Church pressured the family into silence about the molestation. The boy was tormented by other children who called him "the priest's little wife." Spricigo was sentenced to 15 years in prison after police found his diary which detailed his method for selecting victims. One passage of the diary read:

"Age: 7, 8, 9, 10. Sex: masculine. Social condition: poor. Family condition: preferably a son without a father, only a lonely mother or a sister. Where to look: on the streets, in schools and in families. How to attract them: guitar lessons, choir, altar boy. Very important, ingratiate yourself with the family. Possibilities: a boy who's affectionate, calm, and is appreciative. Needy of a father, and has no sexual scruples. My attitudes: see what the boy's like, then ask the boy to give himself to me as payment for receiving a present."

Father Tarcisio Tadeu Spricigo case was part of the BBC's TV Panorama documentary Sex Crimes and the Vatican which claims that Crimen Sollicitationis edict has been used by the Vatican to cover up sex abuse by priests.