HONG KONG
Union of Catholic Asian News
October 10, 2020
By Rock Ronald Rozario
Church leaders in Bangladesh are perhaps relieved that a series of brutal gang rapes in the country have overshadowed and shifted public and media attention from the arrest of a priest on allegations of raping a minor girl.
Father Prodip Gregory, 41, a parish priest in Rajshahi Diocese, was arrested by police on Sept. 29, a day after the elder brother of the girl sued him.
He is the first Catholic priest from the minority Christian community to be arrested for rape. If found guilty, he will be the first priest to serve a jail term for rape.
Bangladesh’s rape law defines sexual intercourse with anyone under 16, even if consensual, as rape, with a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The case garnered heavy media coverage in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where people hear cases and punishment of Muslim clerics for rape now and then, but never about Christian clergy.
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