BishopAccountability.org
	Another Paedophile Priest Is Protected by the Catholic Church – This Time in India By Dean Nelson Telegraph April 6, 2010 http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/deannelson/100032887/another-paedophile-priest-is-protected-by-the-catholic-church-this-time-in-india/ Should Pope Benedict’s Vatican advisors sincerely believe he is the victim of a smear campaign, or wonder why his call for priests to live “as angels” has been greeted with derision, they could take a look at the case of Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul. Fr. Jeyapaul was charged with sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl in Minnesota in 2005, shortly after he was discovered having an inappropriate relationship with a 16 year old girl. He was in India visiting his mother when the “relationship” was discovered by members of his church in Greenbush, Minnesota and was contacted by his bishop, Victor Balke, who decided to keep the matter within the church. He contacted Fr. Jeyapaul in India and told him to stay there and that he would contact the police if he returned. Soon after the call, he was charged in absentia, for the sexual assault of a 14 year old girl. Instead of putting child protection and justice for the victim firs, Bishop Balke referred the case to the Vatican, which recommended but did not insist upon his dismissal. It was left to the discretion of his new bishop in India, the Most Reverend A Almiraj of Ootacamund. He held a canonical trial, and sentenced the priest to a year in a monastery, and now works in the bishop’s own office overseeing the appointment of teachers to local schools. It’s a powerful position which comes with influence in a society where status is everything. When contacted by Associated Press yesterday, the bishop said: “We cannot simply throw out the priest, so he is just staying in the bishop’s house, and he is helping me with the appointment of teachers. He says he is innocent, and these are only allegations. … I don’t know what else to do.” Well, if his first concern was for the reputation of the church, and all the many thousands who do good work in its name, he could have suspended the priest and persuaded him to return to the United States to face the charges. But, as in so many other tragic cases, the thoughts and concerns of the victims and their families, their need for justice, was ranked some way below protecting the standing of the Roman Catholic church. What besmirches the name of the church more: the public reporting of sexual abuse commited by clergymen or the creation of a safe haven for paedophile priests by its bishops?
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