Indian bishops to tackle abusive priests

(April 9, 2010) The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has scheduled a meeting of its standing committee on April 25 in Bangalore to tackle the problem of sexual abuse of children by priests in the country. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, who was elected CBCI president in early March, told UCA News that his top priority at the coming meeting was to formulate guidelines to tackle the issues of abusive priests in the Catholic Church in India. Media reports about an Indian priest charged with child abuse by U.S. authorities have rattled the Indian Church. Some commentators have accused the Indian church of sheltering Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who now works in the Diocese of Ootacamund in southern India. The priest is accused of sexually molesting two teenage girls while working in Minnesota, US, from 2004 to 2005. Father Jeyapaul has said he is innocent but would return to the U.S. to stand trial if called to do so. Cardinal Gracias said the reports were of "very stray cases" and aimed at damaging the church's "good image" in India. "They are not at all widespread," he added, saying the church would nevertheless take all steps to curb them. Cardinal Gracias recently criticized certain media in India for misleading and inaccurate headlines and reports that Pope Benedict is involved in a cover up operation to suppress the truth about sexual abuse of children by priests. “This is not true and categorically denied,” the cardinal said adding that reports failed to portray the correct picture about the comprehensive steps the Vatican has taken to address the issue of sex abuse by priests.