Current incidents matter of shame for Church:Archbishop

With a string of clergymen in Kerala facing accusations of sexual misconduct, Archbishop Soosa Pakiam today said the current incidents in the Catholic Church were a matter of shame for it.

He expressed hope that justice would be done in the case in which a nun has accused a Bishop of raping her.

"Justice should be done in the case. That is the stand of the church," the Archbishop said when asked about the rape allegations levelled against Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

Pakiam, who is also president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, said he was not in a position to make a public statement as it was an issue that occurred between two people in the church.

"The church has no other way but to suffer the agony and shame that the issue has caused," he told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

"The church is probing the case and there will be strong action against the guilty. The church will stand for justice," he said.

The Archbishop condemned the move by certain groups with vested interests for deliberately trying to tarnish the image of the church over the issue.

The nun, in her complaint to the Kottayam district police chief, has accused Mulakkal of raping her and having unnatural sex multiple times at a small town near Kottayam between 2014 and 2016.

Recently, a woman's husband had accused five priests of using his wife's secret confession to "blackmail and sexually abuse" her. Two priests have been arrested in connection with the case while two others are absconding.

The crime branch has slapped rape charges against four clergymen named by the alleged victim as her tormentors while the name of the fifth cleric was not included for want of substantial evidence.