The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India believes Reverend Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul will return to the US after his local bishop orders him to submit himself in front of law.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) believes that Reverend Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, the priest accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl at his former post in Minnesota, should submit himself to the US authorities and face trial.
“We have discussed the matter. There are allegations against him and inquiries are going on. Jeyapaul should go and face trial,” Babu Bishop, spokesperson of CBCI, said.
“We do not know if he is innocent. We want the law to take its own course,” Bishop said. “Before shifting to Minnesota, Jeyapaul had worked 20 years in India, but such an allegation never came against him. We are also discussing the case with Jeyapaul.”
The CBCI believes Jeyapaul will return to the US after his local bishop orders him to submit himself in front of law. His local bishop, Reverend A Almaraj of the Diocese of Ootacamund, held his own canonical trial earlier and told Jeyapaul to spend a year in a monastery.
“Jeyapaul will have to listen to his local bishop. He will return to the US if the bishop tells him. This is the decision of bishop Reverend A Almaraj of the Diocese of Ootacamund. He has decided that Jeyapaul should return. The bishop is in touch with the US authorities,” the CBCI spokesperson said. “A clear policy for such cases will come out in India soon.”
Jeyapaul was one of many foreign priests brought to help fill shortages in US parishes. Last year, about one-quarter of the newly ordained priests in the United States were foreign-born, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Jeyapaul, 55, who came to Minnesota in 2004, was assigned to work at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Greenbush. In 2007, charges were filed against him for alleged sexual assault.
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