Minnesota Catholic Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul served about one year for the sexual abuse of two 14-year-old girls back in 2005. He pled guilty to one sexual abuse, with the other being dropped as part of the plea deal.
As part of the plea deal, charges that he raped another girl from 2004 to 2005 are dismissed.
Jeyapaul came to Minnesota in 2004 and served at Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush. He returned to India in 2005 and was brought back to Minnesota last year to face charges.
Before Jeyapaul came back to sort of face the music, he denied any wrongdoings. He said that the accusations were a shakedown. Surprisingly, his new appointment back in India was very monastic—with no children around. Strange that he copped to a plea deal with the power of the Catholic Church behind him. The Church, for their part, suspended him. But, that’s like so long ago now—who cares about the youthful indiscretions of some kids in Minnesota being taken advantage of and raped by an older man trusted to give moral and spiritual guidance to young people?
The suspension of the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was lifted last month after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India's Tamil Nadu state consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said the Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.
Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund had referred Jeyapaul's case to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the suspension was lifted on the church body's advice, Selvanathan said.
The Vatican office for this Catholic outfit declined to comment. The attorney who represented the two women in a civil suit against the Minnesota Diocese had this to say:
"The Vatican must be held accountable.... This is on them. This is on the pope," Anderson said.
[...]
"They're both quite upset, disturbed and feel deeply betrayed that they would have the audacity to consider even putting him back in ministry," Anderson said. "To use Megan's words, 'They'll never get it and I'm feeling re-victimized.'"
You can watch an older CNN story on Jeyapaul, while he was in India, hiding out, below the fold.