NOIDA (INDIA)
Indian Express
January 9, 2019
By Arun Lakshman
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the top body of the congregation of bishops, has not acted on a directive from the Vatican to meet sex abuse victims abused by the clergy before attending a summit in Rome on clerical sex abuse and child protection between February 21 and 24.
The directive released by the Vatican on December 18 states, “The first step must be to acknowledge what has happened and we urge each episcopal conference president to reach out and visit victim survivors of clergy sex abuse in your respective countries prior to the meeting in Rome to learn first-hand what they have endured.”
Interestingly, one of the four signatories of the letter is Oswald Gracious, Bishop of Mumbai and the current president of the CBCI.There are more than 25 clergy-related sex abuse cases in Kerala which have come out in the open over the past 10 to 15 years.
There are several high-profile cases involving priests in the state; some of the accused faced trial and are behind bars, some are out on bail and some are based abroad in cases involving the rape of minors, young women and nuns.
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