INDIA
UCA nEWS
Christopher Joseph, Kochi
India April 21, 2016
A diocese in southern India has started consulting legal experts after a 26-year-old woman in the United States filed a lawsuit against its bishop for “reinstating” a priest she said sexually abused her.
Megan Peterson filed a federal lawsuit in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 18 against Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund for allegedly reinstating Father Joseph Palanivel Jayapaul, who was convicted of abuse.
“It was like a slap in the face,” Peterson said in a video published on the website of her lawyer Jeff Anderson after learning Father Jayapaul was reinstated to active ministry.
Anderson said the suit is against the bishop and the diocese for creating a “dangerous” situation because of their decision to “reinstate” a “convicted predator priest” to the ministry.
Father Jeyapau, who served in the Crookston Diocese between 2004 and 2005, was arrested in India in 2012 and extradited to the U.S. on charges of sexually abusing two girls, including Peterson. He pleaded guilty to one count of sexually abusing a minor while working in Crookston. He was deported to India immediately after having already served the year and a day prison term handed down.
The case involving Peterson was dropped after a plea deal.
The 61-year-old priest’s suspension, imposed in 2010 after the sex abuse accusations came to light, was revoked on Jan. 16 after consultations with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, diocesan officials said.
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