A prominent priest was charged Wednesday with battery, after an incident of alleged inappropriate conduct at an Illinois parish in November.
While a warrant has been issued in Illinois for the arrest of Fr. Carlos Martins, his attorney told a reporter Friday that the “charges are egregious and unfounded,” and that the priest will be “fully exonerated.”
If Martins is eventually convicted, the charge, first reported by the Herald-News, carries penalties including incarceration for up to one year.
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Martins, a priest of the Canadian Companions of the Cross, was temporarily suspended last year, after an Illinois parish announced that it had reported to the police a Nov. 21 “incident with [Fr. Martins] and some students [that] was reported to have happened in our church.”
The parish, Queen of the Apostles in Joliet, said that after police were called Martins was instructed “that he must depart from our parish and out of our diocese.” The parish also announced that a nationwide tour Martins was conducting, displaying the relics of St. Jude in parishes for veneration, had come to an end.
At the same time, the priest’s religious community said that Martin’s ministry had been “temporarily suspended pending an ongoing police investigation.”
Martins’ attorney pushed back on news reporting about the incident, especially from The Pillar, saying that Martins had been unfairly characterized, and that reports about the incident were overblown — while indicating the prospect of litigation over the story.
In a publicly released letter to The Pillar, the attorney said that Martins had touched a student’s hair during his time at the parish to build “rapport,” and that police were investigating the matter only at the insistence of an “outraged father.”
“As he always does, Fr. Martins began his interaction with the attendees in ‘chit-chat’ dialogue. He is bald and apt to joke about it as a conversation starter,” the attorney wrote.
“During his conversation with the older students, he made a comment to a student about her long hair, remarking, ‘You and I have almost the same hair style,’ a comment met with giggles. He then remarked that he also once had long hair like hers, and he joked he would ‘floss my teeth with it.’ Again, his comment was met with laughter. He then asked the student, ‘Have you ever flossed with your hair?’ Laughing, she shook her head, no. He then said, ‘Well, you have the perfect length for it,’ as he lifted up a lock from her shoulders to show her its length.”
“She giggled along with the others. He was building rapport,” the attorney said, lamenting that when the girl told her father what had happened, “he, apparently, became infuriated by what he heard, calling the police.”
According to the January 22 criminal complaint obtained by The Pillar, Martins is alleged to have “knowingly without legal justification by any means made physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” with the minor student.
The criminal complaint includes a claim not reported in his own narrative, that Martins “placed the hair of [the minor] in his mouth,” in violation of Illinois law.
The Pillar asked Martins’ attorney for comment Thursday night, and asked Friday whether Martins denies that allegation. The attorney did not respond to that request, or indicate whether Martins will surrender himself for arrest.
But on Friday, Martins’ attorney told independent journalist Stella Maris Media that the charges are “egregious and unfounded” — and provided more details on the allegations.
“The evidence will show that Fr. Carlos did not ‘floss’ with a student’s hair or ‘growl’ among other completely false and repulsive accusations,” attorney Marcella Burke said Jan. 24. “This is a takedown of a good priest and an attempted shakedown of the Church. We are confident in the legal process and look forward to our client being fully exonerated. We will continue to vigorously defend his rights and reputation.”
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The charging document indicates that Martins is charged with a Class A misdemeanor, a category of criminal offense which can carry the penalty of incarceration for up to one year, according to the Herald News.
The warrant for the priest indicates that if arrested, Martins is to be “held without release, and brought before [the Will County Court] for Pre-Trial Detention or Conditions of Release.”
The warrant indicates that Martins lives at a Houston, Texas, parish, which was from 2007 until 2011 administered by the Companions of the Cross. Parish bulletins do not indicate that Martins is in residence there. His attorney did not respond to The Pillar’s questions on that matter.
Subsequent to the publication of this report, the Diocese of Joliet told The Pillar that it had “provided accurate information in the statement it issued on November 23, 2024, and will not comment further on the incident or the appropriate actions taken by the diocese.”
“All decisions made were based first and foremost on the protection and safety of minors. This incident involved a visiting priest from out-of-state who is a member of a religious order not associated with the Diocese of Joliet. Any questions concerning canonical proceedings should be directed to the priest's religious order.”
In November, the Diocese of Joliet told The Pillar that according to its policies, the allegations against Martins were “boundary issues, not sexual misconduct.”
In light of that characterization, the priest does not seem likely to face canonical charges for the alleged offense. Whether he is convicted in an Illinois court, it is not clear whether he will be eventually returned to priestly ministry, in light of the criminal charge.
In September 2023, Martins began a tour of U.S. parishes with relics of St. Jude the Apostle, which are displayed in a carved wooden reliquary in the shape of an arm conferring a priestly blessing — the priest said that the Holy See had asked him to conduct the St. Jude relic tour.
Martin has said the relic was made available for touring from St. Peter’s Basilica, and has “not [previously] left Italy for 1,700 years.”
In addition to his work displaying relics, Martins, who has said publicly that he performs exorcism ministry, launched in 2023 a podcast series called “The Exorcist Files,” which features audio dramatizations of reportedly demonic encounters.
The priest claimed in 2023 that the podcast was launched in response to a Vatican request. While he has not indicated which dicastery made the request, he told the National Catholic Register that he began the podcast when “the Holy See asked me to undertake a catechesis about the Church’s teaching regarding the demonic, spiritual warfare and exorcism.”
