Demonstration In Kerala against police inaction Jalandhar Bishop FrancoMulakkal accused of raping nun

1-9-2018

The investigative team of the Jalandhar Bishop case gets death threats. There is a strong pressure from the government to avoid arrest of the Bishop. It is also learned that secretive reports of the investigative team has been leaked to the Bishop. At the same time the investigative team is strongly considering to arrest the Bishop. The officials have said that they are ready to relieve their duties or resign from their posts if the arrest is not made.

KOCHI: 

8-9-2018

Members of various catholic reformation organisations took to the streets in Kochi on Saturday to protest the alleged laxity in the probe into a complaint of rape filed by a nun against a Roman Catholic church bishop.

Five nuns from a convent in Kottayam, to which the victim belonged, also took part in the demonstration and alleged that the victim had been denied justice by the church, police and the government as no action has been initiated against accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar diocese.

"We are fighting for our sister. She has been denied justice by the Church, government and the police. We are ready to go to any extent for ensuring justice to our sister," a nun told protesters, who held placards demanding arrest of Bishop Franco.

She sought to know why Bishop Franco has not been arrested despite sufficient evidence against him and also questioned the Church's stand on the matter.

"Seventy-four days have passed since the complaint was made against Bishop Franco. The police recorded her statements several times. But the accused bishop was interrogated only once," the nun said.

They alleged that the police probing the case was trying to sabotage the investigation.

Catholic reformation organisations, including Kerala Catholic Church Refomation Movement (KCRM), took part in the protest, KCRM office bearer George Joseph said, adding some organisations, including KCRM, were planning to continue the stir till justice is delivered in the case.

In her complaint filed at Kuravilangad Police Station, the victim had alleged that she had received death threats from unknown people two months ago. The nun has accused Jalandhar Bishop Franco of raping and having unnatural sex with her multiple times between 2014 and 2016.

A special team probing the case has said according to preliminary investigation, Bishop Franco abused his position and repeatedly raped the nun.

Responding to a petition seeking speedy probe, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kottayam, K Subhash had informed the Kerala High Court on August 13 that the probe was proceeding effectively and impartially.

The police, in a statement based on initial investigation and available evidence, had said it was found that the Bishop allegedly committed unnatural offence and raped the nun against her will.

In the statement it was allege that the bishop confined the nun to a guest room in St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad in Kottayam district of Kerala. 

Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito: “For the good of all, I believe that it deserves special attention. I thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.”

Irish Times 

Jan 27, 2016

Patsy McGarry

Irish priest in conflict with church authorities over child abuse-related case in Florida

An Irish priest who has been serving in Florida since 2000 claims he has been ostracised by the church for reporting abuse-related activities of a fellow priest to local police.

An Irish priest who has been serving in Florida since 2000 claims he has been ostracised by the church for reporting abuse-related activities of a fellow priest to local police.

Fr Jose Palimatton was arrested and charged with possession of pornography and distributing it to a minor. He later pleaded guilty in court, served a sentence, and has been deported to his native India.

Fr John Gallagher (48) from Strabane, Co Tyrone, has since initiated canon law proceedings against Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach at the Vatican.

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He has also spoken about the case with Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston,
chairman of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Fr Gallagher was critical of Cardinal O’Malley’s handling of the case, saying the commission should discuss the matter but had failed to do so.

That has been confirmed to The Irish Times by commission member Marie Collins, who said the Florida case had not been discussed, and the

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commission did not discuss individual cases. It meets in Rome next week.

Papal nuncio

Fr Gallagher said contact with the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and Ireland Archbishop Charles Brown had also been unsatisfactory.

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papal nuncio to

In December 2014, Fr Gallagher discovered that Fr Palimatton had shown pornography to a teenage boy. He called in a police detective he knew and together they interviewed the priest, who made many admissions.

When he contacted the diocese about the case, “I was told ‘we are used to this.We normally put people like this on an airplane’,” Fr Gallagher told The Irish Times.

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Bishop Barbarito called him a few days later and said he did not want to know the details, he added.

Since then, Fr Gallagher said he had been demoted and that the diocese removed his possessions from a house where he lived and changed the locks. He said he did not know whether church and civil authorities in India had been told about Fr Palimatton’s history.

In a statement, the Diocese of Palm Beach described reports about Fr Gallagher’s allegations as “a completely inaccurate representation of the facts”.

Bishop Barbarito, who succeeded Cardinal O’Malley as Bishop of Palm Beach in 2003, is from Brooklyn.

Previously, as Bishop of Ogdensburg diocese in New York State, he pledged to remove from ministry any priest found to have abused a child but said he saw no need to publicly name accused priests.

5-2-2016

Irish priest praised in US police letter to the Vatican

Fr John Gallagher’s evidence led to abusive priest’s conviction

An Irish Catholic priest has been singled out for praise in a letter sent to theVatican by US police officers who investigated a clerical child abuse case, while criticising the diocese in which the priest served.

Last week, Fr John Gallagher (48), from Strabane, Co Tyrone, who has been ministering in Florida since 2000, claimed he has been ostracised by church authorities there for reporting the conduct of another priest in January 2015.

He said he was subsequently demoted.

On April 30th, Fr Gallagher said he was told by Palm Beach diocesan authorities that he was being transferred to another parish. The transfer was not negotiable.

The accused Franciscan priest, Fr Jose Palimattom, was arrested and charged with possession of pornography and distributing it to a minor.

He pleaded guilty in court, served a sentence, and has been deported to his native India.

In an unsolicited letter about the case last May to her superior, detective Debi Phillips of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office praised the Irish priest.

“Having dealt with the Catholic Church in another criminal investigation I fully expected church administrators to be unco-operative and dismissive of the allegations,” she wrote. “Much to my surprise I was wrong.”

Fr Gallagher and his staff provided “timely evidence” that led to conviction of Fr Palimattom.

“I truly believe that if it wasn’t for the co-operation I received from [him], other children would have been victimised,” the detective wrote.

In a July 20th letter to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, also seen by The Irish Times, Ms Phillips’s superior, chief deputy Michael Gauger, said he “felt compelled to write” on behalf of Fr Gallagher.

cooperated as fully as we could in the investigation, 
Monseigneur.

Veritatem Facientes in Caritate

ook voor U, beterschap 

Court stays trial in nun’s murder case

CRIB 

17-1-2013

The court ordered to issue notices to investigating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and to the three prime accused.
Kochi: The Kerala High court on Wednesday stayed the trial in the alleged murder of a Catholic nun, admitting a petition seeking further investigation in the 20-year old case.

The court ordered to issue notices to investigating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and to the three prime accused—two Catholic priests and a nun.

The “Sister Abhaya murder” case is pending before the CBI special court in state capital Thiruvanathapuram and it had earlier dismissed a petition of rights activist Jomon Puthenpurackal seeking further investigations.

However, High Court admitted Puthenpurackal’s plea that said there were serious lapses in the investigation and justice will not be achieved if trial proceeded without further investigation.

The body of Sister Abhaya, the 19-year old nun, was found in the water well of the St Pius X Convent at Kottayam, where she was staying on March 27, 1992.

Initially, the state police of Crime Branch concluded that the death was a suicide. But the petition of nun’s superiors led to a new investigation by CBI, which said Abhaya was murdered. It requested closure of the case for lack of evidence. But court rejected that request.

After 16 years in 2008, CBI arrested Fathers Thomas Kottur, Jose Puthurukkayil and Sister Sephy and in 2009 charges of murder, destruction of evidence, and defamation were filed against them.

 

food of love Art. 31

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH DELIVERED BY SR. JEANNE DEVOS:

Respected Chief Guest Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad , Guests of Honour and Special Guests,
Mr Nanik Rupani Chairperson and co and vice chairpersons and managing committee members

Dear Friends,
Thank you for this Ramakrishna Bajaj Memorial Global award. It is an honour to me and to the National Domestic Workers Movement for being recognized for our contribution to humanity. It means a lot to me and all our Domestic workers and leaders in whose name I accept it as an appreciation of their service, their strength and perseverance and for the creativity of children in domestic work. Together for 27 years we have travelled the long journey of collective struggle to get dignity and justice for domestic work and domestic workers.

Domestic work is one of the oldest and most important occupations for millions of
women in India . It is rooted in a history of slavery, bonded labour, colonialism, caste, feudal relationships and other forms of servitude. It was reinforced from generation to generation as a form of slavery.
In contemporary India domestic work is in high demand and the fastest growing job, but
domestic workers remain a vulnerable group, underpaid and unprotected, victims of exploitation, discrimination, physical, emotional and psychological and sexual abuse.

Trafficking of women and children for domestic work is still very common. The trafficking takes different forms of buying and selling by agents, false promises of good jobs, care etc.

2012 has been mentioned as the year of dreams. We at NDWM would never have dreamed of a Pryadarshni award. The 27years journey with NDWM has proved that in a process of working with participation, change is possible.

All over India in different states and languages NDWM has thousands of action groups of domestic workers and parliaments of children still working as domestic workers and trying education as well.
In collective strength we work for dignity of work and persons, for rights and for empowerment.
We achieved dignity and a name for domestic work and workers; we have empowered lakhs of domestic workers to fight for their rights and dignity. We were instrumental in Lobbying with the Central Government for the inclusion of domestic workers in the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010 voted by the Lok Sabha a few weeks ago. Enacting the Sexual Harassment Bill is a boost for the lakhs of domestic workers to protect them from abuse at the work place.

Participation in the National Advisory Council and Task Force of the Ministry of Labour to frame National Policy for domestic workers is our landmark contribution.

And in 2011 the ILO convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (ILO Convention) was adopted by 183 countries at theILO Labour Conference in Geneva and supported by our Indian government, opening it up to ratification by states.

Two countries Philippines and Uruguay have ratified the convention

With the Convention still in its beginning stages, it needs further ratification and implementation especially by Indian Government.
At the National level a policy for domestic workers has been presented by NAC and uploaded on the website of the Ministry of Labour and employment. The Central Government has sent it to the state governments to get their opinion before

At state level some 8 states have passed the Minimum Wage Act. Two States have constituted a welfare board for the unorganized workers. The Government of Maharashtra has set up a Domestic Workers Welfare Board and has been registering domestic workers to provide social security provision.
NDWM endeavors to protect child domestic workers from abuse, exploitation, and slavery. We provide crisis intervention, bridge schooling, and rescue of victims. We run transit shelter homes to give the victims of child labour and child trafficking a new chance of life.

The anti trafficking for forced labour campaign gets momentum at the source area as well as destination area.
A lot has been achieved through collective struggle .A wonderful power leads our movement and takes it beyond ourselves. With meaning we said yes to every step and more and more we realize all had meaning .
Today we thank you for the support and encouragement of Priyadarshni Academy and all supporters.

But a lot has still to be done. We count on your support and believe that together we can bring justice to all domestic workers and child domestic workers and all children. That will make our world a world of peace