Dadeus Grings (born 7 September 1936) is a Roman Catholic bishop who is the current ordinary of the

archdiocese of Porto Alegre The Archdiocese of Porto Alegre ( la, Archidioecesis Portalegrensis in Brasilia) is a Latin Rite Metropolitan Archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church in Rio Grande do Sul state, southernmost Brazil. The Archdiocese's mother church and Metrop ...

. He also serves as the chancellor of the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. Grings was ordained a priest on 23 December 1961. He was appointed bishop of São João da Boa Vista on 23 January 1991. He was appointed as Coadjutor Archbishop of Porto Alegre on 12 April 2000, and succeeded to the position of Archbishop on acceptance of the resignation of his predecessor, the late Archbishop Altamiro Rossato,

C.Ss.R. The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...

, on 7 February 2001. He was succeeded at some point in 2013 by Archbishop

Jaime Spengler Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and i ...

. The Archbishop Emeritus is the author of 27 books.

Remarks on 4 May 2010

International controversy was stirred up in connection with remarks by Archbishop Emeritus Grings on 4 May 2010 when speaking of accusations of paedophilia against priests. He said that society as a whole is paedophile and that sexual abuse of children and adolescents is more common among doctors, teachers and businessmen than among priests. The problem, he said, is that today's society is paedophile, with the result that people easily fall into it, and the fact that it is being denounced is a good sign. In his view, all forms of sexuality were being banalized, and the acquisition of legal rights by homosexuals was likely to lead to recognition of the rights of paedophiles. Grings stated clearly that sexual abuse of children and adolescents is a crime and should be punished, but he admitted that, while the Church does adopt internal measures against the guilty, it finds it difficult to denounce its own members to the police. It is unjust, he said, to present paedophilia as a matter that concerns only the Church, when in Germany it had been found that only 0.2% of child abuse was committed by priests. He also said that homosexuality is innate in few cases and generally results from failure to overcome an adolescent experimental stage.''O Imparcial'' (São Paulo): "Arcebispo dom Dadeus Grings afirma: 'A sociedade atual é pedófila'"
/ref> A spokesman for the Bishops Conference distanced himself from the Archbishop's remark that society as a whole is paedophile, while English-language reports misinterpreted his admission that the Church finds it difficult to denounce priests to the police as if he had said that "internal punishment of priests guilty of abuse was sufficient and that police should not be involved".
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grings, Dadeus 1936 births Living people 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Brazil 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Brazil Roman Catholic bishops of Porto Alegre Roman Catholic archbishops of Porto Alegre Roman Catholic bishops of São João da Boa Vista