Catholic priest charged with sexual assault in Minnesota continues working in India

The New York Times (4/6, A1, Goodstein) reported on a priest who, despite having been criminally charged with sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota six years ago, continues to work in his home diocese in India. The Vatican has ignored warnings about Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul that call him a danger to children. So far, the Vatican has been cooperative with American law enforcement efforts to extradite Jeyapaul. However, the Vatican will not override Jeyapaul’s wishes in the matter; a canonical trial resulted in a sentence of one year in monastery for the salacious seminarian. Jeff Anderson, a prominent lawyer in clerical sexual abuse cases, has stated his dismay that Vatican officials cannot seem to deal with these problems head-on.