Father Paulo Antônio Mueller hurling homophobic slurs from the pulpit (YouTube/Jacques Gosh)
A Brazilian priest is under investigation after he was filmed delivering a homophobic slur-filled homily about a gay reporter.
Father Paulo Antônio Mueller, a preacher in the city of Tapurah, is being investigated by Mato Grosso State prosecutors for a vile anti-gay sermon during Pride month.
The video shows him standing in the pulpit and repeatedly using the Portuguese slur “viados”, which is best translated as “f****ts”.
“Dating for us is not like Globo [a major Brazilian TV network] showed this week. Two viados, I’m sorry, two viados. A reporter with a little viado called Pedrinho, I mean, Felipe, saying: ‘Prepare lunch, I’m coming home. I miss you, Felipe.’ Ridiculous,” Mueller said.
The priest delivered the hate-filled sermon on 13 June, a day after Lovers’ Day, when Brazilians typically celebrate love and romance.
According to Crux Now, Mueller was alluding to another video that went viral in Brazil on Lovers’ Day last year, in which TV Globo reporter Erick Rianelli sent a message to his partner Pedro Figueiredo on air.
>As the video was shared by thousands again this year, Mueller told the congregation to consult the Bible and see that God “created man and woman”.
“That’s marriage. They can call the union of two viados and two lesbians the way they want, but not marriage. Please! That’s a lack of respect towards God, it’s sacrilege, it’s blasphemy,” he said.
“Marriage is something beautiful and dignified. Sentiment, love, is for a man and a woman.”
A few days later, Mato Grosso State prosecutors confirmed that they had launched an inquiry to determine if the priest had perpetrated any crime.
“The Mato Grosso State prosecutors launched that investigation because the Supreme Court has recently decided that acts of homophobia should be treated in a similar way that acts of racism, which are crimes according to the Brazilian law,” explained Catholic lawyer Cláudio Langroiva Pereira, speaking to Crux.
Pereira said all citizens must be held responsible for their acts when “their rhetoric harms fundamental human rights”.
“I consider that he extrapolated the right to freedom of speech which the Brazilian State grants him. The Supreme Court equates homophobia to hate speech. His own institution, the Catholic Church, doesn’t authorise him to say such things,” he added.