A former Catholic priest was arraigned yesterday in Criminal Court in Brooklyn on charges of sexually abusing a minor, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced.

Prosecutors said the former priest, Joseph Byrns, 61, is accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in spring 2002, when he called the boy into his church to be an altar server at a special Mass, which was a ruse. Mr. Byrns sexually abused the boy, prosecutors said.

Mr. Byrns would call his victim to be an altar server about once every two months, and the sexual abuse escalated to sodomy. Prosecutors said he also bribed and threatened his victim into silence.

Mr. Byrns was the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church until July 2002, when he was suspended. He was dismissed in June. The victim reported the abuse this summer.

Mr. Byrns is charged with course of sexual conduct in the first and second degrees and 20 counts of sexual abuse. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

CHARGE IN BABY’S DEATH

A 33-year-old Manhattan woman was charged with killing her infant son four years ago and collecting welfare benefits on the dead child after her boyfriend told police about it.

During questioning, the unidentified boyfriend of Diatra Hester-Bey told officers the woman had suffocated her 1-year-old boy at a Manhattan homeless shelter in February 2000. Police said Ms. Hester-Bey confessed. She has two other children, both of whom were in the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services. She was charged with criminally negligent homicide.