Vatican Declined to Pursue Accused Priest
Yes, it’s another case of child abuse covered up by the Catholic Church: Vatican Declined to Pursue Accused Priest.
A Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota has been allowed to continue working at a Catholic diocese in southern India despite warnings from an American bishop that he could still “pose a risk to minors,” according to church documents released Monday.
In a letter sent in December 2005, the bishop, Victor H. Balke, told Vatican authorities that preliminary investigations showed that the priest, Father Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul, had molested a 16-year-old girl after promising to discuss her interest in becoming a nun. Bishop Balke wrote that the priest had also “misappropriated a substantial amount of money.” Bishop Balke asked the Vatican to investigate the allegations and “apply whatever penalty you feel appropriate.”
He wrote that Father Jeyapaul, who had returned to India to care for his dying mother, was not complying with his request to return to the diocese to be made accountable.
But five months later, the Vatican office he appealed to, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declined to take on the case, saying only that “Father Jeyapaul’s priestly life should be monitored so that he does not constitute a risk to minors and does not create scandal among the faithful.”
Frank says: