US woman to sue Indian priest for sexual abuse, Vatican dragged into spotlight yet again

The Vatican is in the midst of a sexual abuse controversy yet again after it announced that the Diocese of Ootacamund located in Mylapore, Chennai, would reinstate Joseph Jeyapaul to the ministry.

In protest, a 26-year-old American woman will file a lawsuit against the Indian Catholic priest Joseph and his church in India for sexually abusing her during the time of his posting in the US between 2004 and 2005.

Minnesota-based attorney Jeff Anderson will file the lawsuit on behalf of the victim in the federal court. The lawsuit claims that the Diocese of Ootacamund endangered children by reinstating Jeyapaul.

Jeyapaul served as a priest in Crookston township of Minnesota in 2004 and 2005. He was arrested in India and extradited to the US in 2012 on charges of sexually abusing two girls from a congregation.

The priest was deported back to India last year, after serving his sentence of one year and one day in a US prison.

According to the Hindustan Times  (HT) report, advocacy group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) announced in a statement that one of the sexual abuse survivors would sue the priest and the diocese.

“It may be the most irresponsible Vatican move we’ve ever seen: Catholic officials in Rome have lifted the suspension of a recently convicted predator priest. We are stunned and saddened by such blatant recklessness and callousness,” Barbara Dorris, outreach director of SNAP, said in a statement on Tuesday.

A letter sent to Anderson and Roseau County Attorney Lisa Hanson and signed by over 500 Indian supporters will also be released as evidence of the public danger (nuisance) that the Indian bishop can pose said a HT report.

“On January 16, 2016, with the permission of Pope Francis, Bishop Amalraj lifted the suspension of Father Joseph Jeyapaul,” the firm said. It also added that in 2015 Jeyapaul had pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct involving sexual abuse of a minor girl while he worked in the Diocese of Crookston in 2005.

“Catholic officials refuse to keep this admitted sex offender away from kids, so our only hope of stopping him is to get him charged and convicted again,” Dorris said according to HT.

“It was the first victim’s courage that brought forward a second victim of Fr Jeyapaul. It was the second victim’s courage that prodded Fr Jeyapaul to plead guilty. And we hope the courage of a third victim will get Fr Jeyapaul extradited, convicted and jailed again, so that no more innocent lives are shattered,” SNAP said according to HT.

“Until he’s charged and convicted again, Jeyapaul should be put in a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center far from families who have learned to trust him,” it added.

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