BANGLADESH
Global Pulse
The case of Father Walter Rozario bears all the hallmarks of denial, cover-up and silencing victims seen in the West
June 13, 2018
By Michael Kelly SJ, Bangkok
The investigation by ucanews.com into the disappearance of a priest from Bangladesh that uncovered evidence of sexual abuse follows a well-trodden path.
It’s one that has been travelled in country after country for 30 years — in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Australia and now on full display in Chile.
It runs like this: there is a pattern of “grooming” where the sexual predator flatters and indulges his proposed victim into submission; advances are made by the predator on his target; fear and paralysis is the response of the target and often their families, and so often silence.
If church authorities are informed or learn of the events, there is puzzlement followed by inertia often with a failure to listen or take seriously the complaints about a cleric or religious; a pattern of cover-up where the predator is defended or worse still, they are moved to other parts of the diocese or the country or even out of the country; the circling forces of the police are at the extremes: they are either complicit with the powerful church or out to score a conviction at almost any cost.
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