BOSTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Rev. Andrew J. Urbaniak, a Catholic priest in Boston, was arraigned Wednesday on charges he possessed and disseminated child pornography.
Bail was set at $10,000 for the 39-year-old priest, who pleaded not guilty in South Boston Municipal Court.
Prosecutors said during the hearing that city police officers found child pornography downloading onto a computer in the church rectory when they entered the building Monday, The Boston Globe reported.
Urbaniak, a member of a Franciscan order whose superiors are in Poland, has been assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in South Boston for the past four years.
The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement saying he has been placed on administrative leave and is barred from carrying out his priestly duties.
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Kate Clayman said Massachusetts State Police discovered the priest was accessing a site known as a source of child pornography and turned the matter over to Boston police to investigate.
Clayman said Urbaniak confessed to detectives he had pornography on his computer with images of children as young as 8 or 9. No one has come forward to say they had been victimized by the priest, authorities said.
Urbaniak's attorney, Jeffrey Denner, said in court his client has been a priest for 14 years, including the past 12 in the United States, and has "a long history of doing good." He said Urbaniak became a naturalized U.S. citizen two years ago.
