New Delhi, Feb. 28: A Kerala priest has been arrested on charges of raping a minor, swinging the spotlight back on continuing paedophilia in the Catholic Church despite regular papal declarations of "zero tolerance" for sexual abuse of children by clergymen.
The arrest of Father Robin Vadakkumcherry, 48, accused of having raped a 16-year-old student who delivered a child earlier this month, comes barely two months after Pope Francis's renewed call that such abuse would not be tolerated.
The priest of St. Sebastian's Church at Kottiyoor in north Kerala's Kannur district was held yesterday while he was on way to Kochi airport, allegedly trying to flee India. Police have told the Syro-Malabar church authorities that he had an air ticket and a Canada tourist visa.
Fr. Robin was also the manager of Kottiyoor's IJM Higher Secondary School, where the victim was a Class XI student. The arrest followed an anonymous tip-off to Childline, an emergency service for children.
Fr. Robin has been suspended from his "priestly ministry", Syro-Malabar Church spokesperson Fr. Thomas Poochakkatt said. He has also been removed from all Church offices, including as the school manager. "This is very unfortunate for us and we are deeply apologetic," Fr. Poochakkatt said.
On whether Fr. Robin would be defrocked, Fr. Poochakkatt said this was the action after the crime had been established. "For ensuring a proper, unhindered investigation, we have immediately suspended him as there is 'zero tolerance' for sexual abuse by clergymen."
In a letter to bishops on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, sent on December 28 and read out in churches across the world on the first Sunday of January, Pope Francis had said the Church "recognises the sins of some of her members, the sufferings, the experiences and the pain of minors who were abused sexually by priests". "It is a sin that shames us. Persons responsible for the protection of those children destroyed their dignity."
"We join in the pain of the victims and weep for this sin. The sin of what happened, the sin of failing to help, the sin of covering up and denial, the sin of the abuse of power. The Church also weeps bitterly over this sin of her sons and she asks forgiveness. Today,... I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst.... let us adhere, clearly and faithfully, to 'zero tolerance'," the letter said.
However, an Associated Press report from Vatican City this past weekend said: "Pope Francis has quietly reduced sanctions against a handful of paedophile priests, applying his vision of a merciful Church even to its worst offenders in ways that survivors of abuse and the Pope's own advisers question."
Asked about it, Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) secretary-general Theodore Mascarenhas told The Telegraph: "I do not agree that the Holy Father has decreased sanctions. He has in fact made it more stringent on the Bishops to act." Another clergyman pointed out the paedophile priests - whose sanctions had been reduced by the Pope - remained permanently removed. "He has only stayed their defrocking."
The CBCI has distanced itself from another Kerala priest-related controversy that erupted after an old video surfaced showing a clergyman making disparaging remarks about women who do not dress "properly" and instead wear jeans and T-shirts to church.
"If these statements have been really made, we condemn them equivocally. They have no place in our Christian Religion," Bishop Mascarenhas tweeted after the clip went viral.
