(INDIA)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
November 11, 2026
By Michael Gonsalves
Victims face intimidation, pressure to keep quiet, child rights activists, lay people allege
A second case of child sex abuse has been registered against a Catholic priest by police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, sparking outrage among child rights activists and lay leaders who demanded action against the top leadership of his diocese.
Father Cyprian Pinto, the parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Valencia, was arrested last month by police in Mangaluru (earlier Mangalore) city for allegedly abusing a 14-year-old boy who regularly visited the church for prayers.
Mangaluru police said another criminal case has been registered against Pinto for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.
In a press release issued on Nov. 9, the police said the 65-year-old Catholic priest was booked under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, based on a complaint alleging that he abused the boy on May 13.
The boy regularly attended Sunday prayers at the St. Sebastian Church in Permannur village, near Olapete in Mangaluru, where Pinto was serving as parish priest at the time, police said.
Pinto was transferred to St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Valencia on May 26 after completing a six-year tenure at Permannur.
Police claimed to have identified five alleged victims who were minors when they first arrested Pinto on Oct. 18.
Mangaluru city police commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy said Pinto was then produced in court and placed in judicial custody until Oct. 30.
“He was subsequently released on bail by a local court on condition that he cooperate with the ongoing investigation,” Reddy told UCA News on Nov. 10.
Roy Castelino, public relations officer of Mangalore diocese, said Pinto has not yet been arrested in the second case.
“The priest has been suspended from parish work. After his release on bail, he went home and is undergoing medical treatment,” Castelino told UCA News.
“The diocese has sent a report to the Vatican on the allegations leveled against the priest,” he added.
Child rights activist Stanly KV, who helped the first victim’s family file the first information report, or FIR, that formally opens a criminal case in India, claimed that eight boys allegedly abused by Pinto had complained to Bishop Peter Paul Saldanha of Mangalore in August this year.
“Five of the eight boys submitted individual letters to the bishop detailing their alleged sexual abuse by Pinto, and yet the bishop is sheltering the pedophile priest,” he told UCA News.
Stanly, who is founding secretary of Odanadi Seva Samsthe, an organization combating human trafficking and sexual exploitation, demanded that Saldanha be made an accused in the case for not informing the police for two months.
“Catholics are shocked that the head of the church, instead of providing justice for the victims and their families, was supporting the ‘habitual offender,’” he said.
Stanly further claimed that a third case of sexual assault against Pinto has also surfaced.
“A 35-year-old Catholic man sent a complaint a few days ago to the Mangaluru police commissioner that he was sexually assaulted by Pinto when he was a teenager and attended a church, where he was his parish priest.”
The activist said he has approached the Karnataka High Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee, alleging that four other children who were prepared to file complaints were being reportedly intimidated and pressured to keep quiet.
Stanly demanded that the state’s police set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe whether complaints were being deliberately suppressed and also examine the role of Church functionaries who may have known about Pinto’s alleged crimes.
Robert Rosario, a member of the Mangaluru Association of Concerned Catholics, said that Pinto had served as a priest since 1988 under three bishops, adding that “all of them were aware of his pedophile nature,” yet took no action.
“Instead, they transferred him from one parish to another, only [for him] to sexually exploit more and more boys with complete impunity,” he said.
“Saldanha, the current bishop, should be investigated for failing to report the priest to the police as mandated by the POCSO Act,” Rosario demanded.
Some lay leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said certain diocesan priests were using the pulpit during Mass to urge parishioners to pray for the priest and the bishop while totally ignoring the victims and their families.
The case has renewed attention on safeguarding procedures in religious institutions and the responsibility of Church authorities to ensure allegations involving children are reported to the appropriate authorities.
Under Indian law, the identities of children who suffered sexual violence must remain confidential.
Karnataka has a population of 61 million, with Hindus making up 84 percent, Muslims 13 percent, and Christians about 2 percent, or 1.1 million, according to the 2011 national census, the most recent data available.