MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune
By Andrew Haffner, Forum News Service
CROOKSTON, Minn.—A Minnesota survivor of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has won a settlement in federal court to prevent her abuser, who was suspended but not removed from the ministry, from carrying out similar crimes in his home country of India.
But in a Monday press conference, survivor Megan Peterson questioned the church mechanisms that allowed her abuser, Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, to possibly return to the ministry after being convicted for his crimes against her in the U.S.
Peterson said the legal win is “not enough.”
“I can take this as a victory today, and I think the children of India can take this as a victory, but the question is why the Vatican reinstated him, a convicted felon?” she asked. “That question is left unanswered.”
Peterson filed her lawsuit in the federal district court of Minnesota alleging nuisance against Jeyapaul, Indian Bishop Arulappan Almaraj and the Diocese of Ootacamund, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on April 18 after she learned the Catholic Church had lifted its suspension of Jeyapaul—allowing him to be reassigned despite his sexual abuse conviction in the U.S.
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