NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)
A Catholic priest who was convicted last year by a U.S. court of sexually abusing a minor was reinstated by the church last month.
Indian priest Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61, was suspended for less than a full year by his local diocese in India five years ago after being accused of sexually abusing two girls during a posting to Minnesota.
He later pleaded guilty to molesting one of the teenagers, who has not been identified publicly, and served time in jail. Both of the girls were 14 at the time of the alleged abuse.
In January, the Vatican lifted Jeyapaul’s suspension following a recommendation by an Indian bishop.
Megan Peterson, now 26 and living in New York, accused Jeyapaul of raping and sexually assaulting her over the course of a year when she was 14, according to the New York Daily News.
She was shocked after learning the priest had been reinstated by Catholic Church officials.
‘It’s very clear what side the Church is on and it’s not about child protection or about morality,’ Peterson, an artist who resides in Queens, told the New York Daily News.
‘The bottom line is that the Church is not protecting children.’
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