MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux
July 3, 2019
By Nirmala Carvalho
A court in India has told police not to take any further action against Cardinal Oswald Gracias of the Archdiocese of Bombay and two of his auxiliary bishops in a case where they are accused of not informing the authorities of an abuse accusation against a priest.
Father Lawrence Johnson was arrested in 2016 on allegations of the sexual abuse of a child, but the family of a boy abused by the priest met with Gracias on November 30, 2015, just hours before the cardinal was scheduled to leave for Rome.
Gracias maintains that when he arrived in Rome, he asked his Auxiliary Bishop John Rodrigues to inform the authorities in conformity of the 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, but the family had already done so.
Another auxiliary bishop, Savio Dominic Fernandes, is named in the complaint, even though he was outside the city at the time.
Records show the family went to the police on Nov. 30, 2015, made the official First Incident Report shortly thereafter, and Father Lawrence Johnson was arrested Dec. 2.
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