By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, Aug 1, 2020: A Catholic laity forum in India has urged the papal representative in the country to set up a seven-member committee to probe various allegations against Bishop K A William of Mysore.

The committee members “should be mandated to make public their report within thirty days of being commissioned to do so,” says the Indian Catholic Forum’s July 31 letter addressed to Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro.

The forum suggests that the probe committee should comprise a financial expert, legal expert, two priests, and three laity including women.

The letter signed by forum national convener chhotebhai wants Bishop William suspended immediately from “exercising episcopal office” and “extradited” from the territory of Mysore diocese, considering the “gravity of the charges against him.”

The letter, with supporting documents, lists the following charges against the Mysore bishop:

• That he has allegedly had two of his priests murdered
• That he uses the police and other unfair practices to coerce or threaten victims and witnesses
• That he tried to extract a forced confession from one of his priests
• That he has two mistresses and two children by them
• That he was involved in the kidnapping and sexual molestation of one of his employees
• That there has been large scale misappropriation of some relief funds
• That another elderly priest is being threatened and harassed.

The forum says it had on June 26 written to the nuncio listing all these charges, but the letter was neither been acknowledged nor replied to.

Chhotebhai says he is not aware of any action taken by the nuncio on the forum’s earlier letter. “I receive several Catholic news reports and journals. None of them have reported any action taken by you,” he points out.

The laity forum leader says it has received several documents and circumstantial evidence from priests of Mysore diocese. As many as 37 priests of the diocese had written to the Pope as well as the nuncio complaining about their bishop.

“Not a single letter of these hapless and helpless priests was either acknowledged or answered. This speaks volumes for the insensitivity, lack of transparency and accountability in the Catholic Church, resulting in a grave faith crisis and trust deficit,” bemoans chhotebhai.

The forum also wonder if the Vatican appointed William as the Mysore bishop despite being aware of his moral turpitude and criminal activities.

While expressing the hope that the nuncio would acknowledge at least the second letter from the forum, chhotebhai recalls what happened to the papal nuncio in Ireland in 2012. The Irish government removed the nuncio for his “soft stand” on clerical pedophilia.

“We expect the representative of Pope Francis in India to have the smell of the sheep and sensus fidei so as not to be seen as anti-people or anti-national, that could result in an unpleasant situation as in Ireland aforesaid,” he adds.

He also points out the Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code that covers criminal conspiracy that includes abetment or even evidence of transmission of thoughts sharing the unlawful design. “Turning a blind eye to prima facie criminal acts would be tantamount to abetment of the crime, criminal conspiracy and collusion. I hope and pray that your august office will not have to face such an eventuality,” the forum letter says.

“This letter is written based on credible evidence and without prejudice to any person, as I have no personal contact or vested interest in any of the persons in Mysuru (new name of Mysore) mentioned in this correspondence,” says chhotebhai.

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The Forum letter follows:

Abp Giambattista Diquattro,
Papal Nuncio to India
Apostolic Nunciature
50C Niti Marg, Chanakyapuri
New Delhi – 110021
(nuntius@apostolicnunciatureindia.com)

31st July 2020

OPEN LETTER No 2

Respected Nuncioji,

Sub: Alleged Crimes/Misdeeds of Bp K.A. William of Mysuru Diocese

This is further to my previous letter dt 24/6/2020, which has neither been acknowledged nor replied to. Hence I am not aware of any action taken by you in this regard. I receive several Catholic news reports and journals. None of them have reported any action taken by you. My sources in Mysuru diocese itself are also unaware of any action taken by you; hence I am constrained to conclude that indeed no action has been taken by you. Fourteen of my colleagues in the Indian Catholic Forum also wrote to you in support of my letter under reference.

One of them, Sri M.L. Satyan of Bangalore, even sent you several reminders. On 10/7/20 he received this rather cryptic response from your office. “This office receives dozens of documents, letters, reports, texts, various publications and project proposals by regular mail and digital mail. As there are so many senders, it is not possible to acknowledge receipt of their correspondence received. Therefore this office kindly asks you to use the appropriate postal tracking services to be sure that the mail sent has been regularly delivered”.

I have interacted with various levels of Government and hierarchy, but I have never seen such an insensitive and absurd reply. To add insult to injury the sender of this email did not have the courtesy/ etiquette to affix his/ her name to the email. In the light of the above, I am sending you a hard copy of this letter by Registered Post, so that I may track it down to you. Besides, any computer programmer can easily devise a system for you to automatically acknowledge emails and allot them a serial reference number. Such a tracking system is commonly followed in many grievance/ customer service cells of government and private bodies.

My letter under reference was published in several Catholic portals and journals. Since a copy was marked to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, CBCI President and one of six advisors to Pope Francis, Sri Saji Thomas, correspondent of Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) tried to contact the cardinal. His official spokesperson Rev Nigel Barrett said that the cardinal “has no jurisdiction to initiate any action against a bishop. Since most charges against Bishop William are criminal in nature, it is for the police and the State to deal with them. The complaints are already with the nunciature, which is the competent authority to deal with such issues”. From the above statement it is clear that you are both seized of the matter and also the competent authority to address the ecclesial aspects of the case at hand. It is for this reason that I am reverting to you.

1. A RECAP: I am giving a recap of the allegations/ accusations against William as mentioned in my previous letter: (i) That he has allegedly had two of his priests murdered (ii) That he uses the police and other unfair practices to coerce or threaten victims/ witnesses (iii) That he tried to extract a forced confession from one of his priests (iv) That he has two mistresses and two children by them (v) That he was involved in the kidnapping and sexual molestation of one of his employees (vi) That there has been large scale misappropriation of some relief funds (vii) That another elderly priest is being threatened and harassed.
2. PRIESTS’ COMPLAINTS: I have received several more documents and circumstantial evidence from priests of Mysuru diocese itself, notably Rev Gnana Prakash, parish priest, Sacred heart Church, Nagavalli and Rev Rohan A, parish priest, Immaculate Conception Church, Kudlur; as also signatures of 37 priests with their designations stamped. Most of them are also parish priests and a few are principals. The signature sheets run into 7 pages so I am not sending them to you, as I understand that you already have them. They first wrote directly to Pope Francis on 20/7/19, copy marked to you. They sent you a reminder on 9/12/19. Besides on 2/12/19 they wrote to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State at the Vatican as also to Cardinal Luis Ferrer, Prefect, Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith; and on 10/1/20 they again wrote to Pope Francis. All these letters were sent by Fedex Courier Services and Registered Post. Not a single letter of these hapless and helpless priests was either acknowledged or answered. This speaks volumes for the insensitivity, lack of transparency and accountability in the Catholic Church, resulting in a grave faith crisis and trust deficit.
3. OLD CRIMINAL CASE: William’s criminal antecedents seem to precede his appointment as bishop, bringing the very process into disrepute. (Incidentally I am given to understand that he was installed as a bishop just a month after you came to India in January 2017)! On 9/3/2011 a policeman Sri H. Alexander, s/o late G. Irudyan, filed a First Information Report (FIR) No 0034 in Lashkar Police Station, Mysuru, against William and his companion Dixon under sections 323, 504, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to: causing grievous hurt, intentional insult to cause breach of peace, criminal intimidation and an act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention. A copy of the FIR is attached as Annexure A to this letter. The case was later dismissed as not pressed, perhaps because the influential William was able to compromise the complainant with a negotiated settlement.
4. KIDNAPPING CASE; I am attaching herewith as Annexure B a complaint purportedly written by Ms Sahana S.N., w/o Lawrence Tony, r/o PH Colony, NR Mohalla, Mysore, in her own handwriting and under her own signature. This complaint letter was purportedly sent to the DG and IG of Police, Karnataka State, Bangalore. The letter, inter alia, states as follows: (i) Sahana, the complainant, alleges that she was kidnapped, sexually harassed and threatened (ii) That she was earlier working in the Family Commission in the Bishop’s House on a salary of Rs 8000/- pm, from January to May 2018, during which period a priest, Rev Leslie Moraes made sexually explicit advances to her that she resisted, and consequently quit the job (iii) That shortly thereafter she got a job as a Lobby Manager in Mandovi Motors, an automobile agency. On 27/7/2018 three agents of William showed her photos of her only child and under duress blindfolded and kidnapped her and took her to an isolated place where she was confronted by William, Leslie Moraes and another priest Vijay Kumar. They showed her some more photos of her family members to terrorise her and asked her how much money she wanted to stop investigating the illicit relations and illegal acts of the trio. She declined the monetary offer, after which this traumatised women was dropped back to her work station (iv) She describes William as a wolf in the garb of a cow. The averments in this complaint letter were reiterated in a video, which she later publicly retracted allegedly under duress, coercion or after being compromised with money. Be that as it may, this unsavoury chain of events is indicative of a morally depraved person who will stoop to anything to attain what he wants, and to eliminate those who oppose him.
5. MISTRESS: We now have further evidence of one of the two alleged mistresses of William. As earlier mentioned, her name is Sunitha d/o Harry, w/o Anthonyraj r/o 333 Mudda Employee Layout, Dattagalli 3rd Stage, near Ramkrishnanagar, K Block Mysore – 570022. After her alleged affair with William, who allegedly sired a son from her, her husband Anthonyraj left her and now does odd jobs like painting. Sunitha apparently has no known source of income. Earlier she and her husband were living in a small house. A photo of the same is attached as Annexure C .She is now living in a palatial house built on an expensive corner plot as per photo attached as Annexure D. This site was purchased on 11/7/12 at a declared value of Rs. 13,50,000/-. Its present day constructed value will be not less than Rupees Two Crores. How can a woman, abandoned by her husband and with no known source of income, afford to build such a house, without some godfather somewhere? The son born of this unholy alliance is studying in an elite school, De Paul International School. From where does this women, whose former husband is doing menial jobs, get the money to pay the exorbitant fees for such a school?
6. GIFT OF CAR: Who gifts a fancy car to a woman without a quid pro quo? This is exactly what William did. He purchased a Blazing Red Maruti Celerio VXI AMT (top end automatic model) on 22/12/15. The road tax paid was Rs. 70889/-. Hence the estimated value would have been about Rupees Six Lakhs. Just two months later on 2/3/16 this fancy vehicle was transferred to Sunitha. Why would a bishop transfer a brand new vehicle to a lady with no known source of income if there was no quid pro quo? The transfer document is attached herewith in ANNEXURE E. The vehicle bearing registration number KA 55 M 8443 can also be seen parked outside the palatial house of Sunitha.

From the above it may be reasonably inferred that several unholy acts of commission and omission are happening in Mysuru Diocese in which William seems to be prima facie involved. Victims are afraid to go to the police because of the financial and political muscle that he enjoys. The law will take its own course in civil and criminal proceedings in the courts. More important for us is the image of the church that has taken a severe beating. We already have before us the cases of Bishops Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar and Galela Prasad of Kadapa. They pale into insignificance when compared to the alleged deeds of William and his henchmen.

In this, as also in my previous letter to you, I have mentioned the names of some brave people both clergy and laity, who have had the guts to speak out against this dangerous William. Should anything untoward happen to any of them the needle of suspicion will immediately point to William.

OUR REQUEST: Legalities apart, we are here concerned with the morality of this sordid episode, and the morale of the priests and people of the diocese. Hence, in the interest of justice, I once again appeal to you to appoint a seven member Enquiry Committee consisting of a financial expert, legal expert, two priests, and three laity including women. They should be mandated to make public their report within thirty days of being commissioned to do so. Considering the gravity of the charges against William, he should be simultaneously suspended from exercising episcopal office, and extradited from the territorial jurisdiction of Mysore diocese. In the interim an Apostolic Administrator may kindly be appointed.

I look forward to hearing from you, not just a terse acknowledgement but an assurance of action to be taken. I may here mention that in 2012 the Papal Nuncio to Ireland was removed by the Irish Government for his soft stand on clerical paedophilia. We expect the representative of Pope Francis in India to have the smell of the sheep and sensus fidei so as not to be seen as anti people or anti national, that could result in an unpleasant situation as in Ireland aforesaid.

I may also here mention that Section 120B of the IPC covers criminal conspiracy which includes abetment or even evidence of transmission of thoughts sharing the unlawful design. Turning a blind eye to prima facie criminal acts would be tantamount to abetment of the crime, criminal conspiracy and collusion. I hope and pray that your august office will not have to face such an eventuality.

This letter is written based on credible evidence and without prejudice to any person, as I have no personal contact or vested interest in any of the persons in Mysuru mentioned in this correspondence.

Respectfully and hopefully,

chhotebhai
National Convenor
Indian Catholic Forum
Noronha Sadan, 2/11 Krishnanagar, Kanpur – 208007
Email: noronha.kp@gmail.com Phone: 9415130822

Cc Cardinal Oswald Gracias, CBCI President and Advisor to Pope Francis
Rev Lawrence Culas, President, Catholic Priests Council of India
Ms Rene Reid, Director, Catholic Church Reform International
Sri Lancy D’Cunha, National President, All India Catholic Union
The Aggrieved Parties
The Catholic Press – all for information and necessary action