One of the Catholic Church’s most senior cardinals has admitted that he could have better handled sexual abuse allegations that were brought to him. Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Mumbai is one of four men organising a major Vatican conference on child abuse this week.
We found two separate cases where the cardinal, who is tipped by some to possibly become the next Pope, is claimed to have failed to respond quickly or offer support to the victims. Victims and those who supported them allege that Cardinal Gracias did not take allegations of abuse seriously when they were reported to him. India’s Catholics say there is a culture of fear and silence in the Catholic Church about sexual abuse by priests. Those who have dared to speak out say it has been an ordeal.
The first case dates back to 2015 in Mumbai. A woman’s life changed when her son returned from Mass at the church and told her that the parish priest had raped him. “I could not understand what should I do?” she said. She did not know this yet, but this event would put her on a collision course with the Catholic Church in India. The man she reached out to for help was and remains one of the most senior representatives of the Church.
It was nearly 72 hours after the alleged rape that the family briefly met Cardinal Gracias, then president of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India and Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. The issue of sexual abuse within the Church is being called the Vatican’s biggest crisis in modern times, and the integrity of the Catholic Church is said to ride on the outcome of this conference.
Over the past year, the Catholic Church has been reeling under multiple allegations of sexual abuse around the world. But while abuse claims have made headlines in North and South America, Europe and Australia, very little is known about the problems in Asian countries. In countries such as India there is a social stigma about reporting abuse. Among Christians, who are a minority of nearly 28 million people, a culture of fear and silence makes it impossible to gauge the true scale of the problem.
