Officials OK Lifting Convicted Predator Priest's Suspension; Victims Respond

SNAP
February 11, 2016

http://www.snapnetwork.org/vatican--officials_ok_lifting_convicted_predator_priest_s_suspension_victims_respond

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

A bishop says that Vatican officials have approve his lifting of the suspension of a convicted predator priest. If this is true, this is an act of breath-taking recklessness and callousness.

Our heart ache for betrayed families in Minnesota and vulnerable families in India. Most of all, however, our hearts ache for one of the bravest victims we’ve ever met, Megan Peterson, whose courage helped get Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul charged, extradited, and convicted of child sex crimes in Crookston MN.

[ucanews.com]

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund said Fr. Jeyapaul’s suspension ended last month after consultations with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Last year, Francis promoted and defended a complicit bishop in Chile while calling “dumb” the parishioners who expressed concern for the move.

This year, Francis lets a convicted predator priest go back to work, lets a papal panel oust an abuse survivor, and lets new bishops be taught that they don’t have to call police when abuse reports surface.

And some wonder why abuse victims “never seem satisfied.” The pope’s “Year of Mercy” is increasingly seeming like a “Year of Mercy for Corrupt Clergy.”

We hope this outrage will prod Catholics in India, Minnesota and elsewhere to condemn this callous church hierarchy, donate elsewhere and share what they know or suspect about clergy sex crimes and cover ups with secular authorities. And we hope that, once and for all, parishioners will give up on the comforting but obviously dead-wrong notion that Catholic officials will handle predators and abuse reports properly.

We also hope this dangerous injustice will prompt many more who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups to speak up, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

Indian bishop lifts convicted priest's suspension

Decision on confessed sex offender made after Vatican consultations, Ootacamund prelate says

ucanews.com reporter, Kochi, India February 11, 2016

A Catholic bishop in southern India has lifted the suspension of a priest convicted last year of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl in the United States.

The 2010 suspension order imposed on Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61, was lifted on Jan. 16 after consultations with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund told ucanews.com Feb. 9.

"It was not a personal decision, but was done after . . .