By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, May 2, 2022: A court in Kerala has awarded 18 years of rigorous imprisonment to a Catholic priest for sexually abusing four minor seminarians.

The Additional Sessions Court dealing with POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases on April 29 found Father Thomas Parakalam guilty of the crime.

The 35-year-old priest is a member of Chennai-based Society of St Eugene de Mazenod.

The congregation’s authorities have neither responded to Matters India’s email queries nor attended phone calls regarding the current status of the accused.

The case began in 2016 when the police in Puthoor under Kottarakkara circle registered the case against the priest for committing offences punishable under Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections of the POCSO Act.

The sexual abuse came to light after Child Welfare Committee in Thiruvananthapuram received a complaint. The victims, all aged 16 at the time of the incident, were the students of a seminary in Pullamala in Kollam district. The priest was its rector.

Judge K N Sujith found Father Thomas guilty. He was also a former vicar of Kottarakkara parish under the diocese of Punalur.

Sentencing the priest to five years each in three cases and three years sentence in the fourth case, Judge Sujith also ordered him to pay a compensation of 100,000 each for every case.

The court also recommended the District Legal Services Authority to award adequate compensation to the victims commensurate with the physical as well as mental trauma suffered by them.

“The factual circumstances emerged in the instant case would show that, attributing to sexual attack the victim boys were subjected to, they had suffered physical as well as mental trauma and ergo, it is necessary to rehabilitate them,” the court said.

The accused, who went absconding after escaping from police custody, was arrested from Chennai.

This is the latest case where a Catholic priest was punished for abusing minors.

On December 29, 2021, a POCSO court in Mumbai awarded life sentence to Father Lawrence Johnson of the archdiocese of Bombay, for sodomizing a teenage old boy in 2015. The priest was arrested in 2016.

In 2017, a POCSO court in Kerala’s Kannur district sentenced Father Robin Vadakkumchery of Kerala’s Mananthavady diocese to 20 years in prison for repeatedly raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl. He was the parish priest of St Sebastian Church in Kottiyoor.

At least five major incidents of child abuse involving priests were reported in Kerala during 2015-2017.

The increase in such incidents led the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council in 2017 to consider a protocol for priests and nuns who interact with students.

Father Varghese Vallikkatt, the council’s then deputy secretary and spokesperson, reportedly termed such cases as unfortunate

In the first POCSO conviction in Kerala, a court in Ernakulam on December 8, 2016, sentenced Father Edwin Figarez of Kottapuram diocese to undergo double life imprisonment for raping a minor girl. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 215,000 rupees.

Earlier in October that year, Father James Thekemuriyil, the rector of a seminary in Kannur district, was arrested for alleged sexual assault on a seminarian.

In 2014, Raju Kokkan, the vicar of the St Paul’s Church in Thaikkattussery, under Kerala’s Trichur archdiocese, was arrested for raping a nine-year-old girl several times.

8 Comments

  1. It seems that our Church leaders are deaf and blind to the abuses that are happening in the Church. They think that by not acknowledging the problem it does not exist. Church credibility is fast eroding and young people do not want to identify with a hypocritical Church. They either change or become irrelevant.

  2. Is “God’s own country” turning into “Devil’s own country”!!??!!

    KCBC, CBCI, CCBI and the Nuncio still seem to be “not active/serious” about this matter.

    The gruesome murder of the Rector of St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute, suicides in Convents and sex scandals in Formation houses will definitely discourage youngsters to priestly or religious life.

    No wonder why there is a continuous exodus of Catholics to other Christian groups/religion.

  3. I support Rosaline Costa. Those priests who long for a family life or sex must come out open and leave the church. They will get dispensation from the bishop without delay. They can start a new life. Presently such priests ruin the image of the Church and help faithful to lose their confidence in priests and church. This must be stopped immediately. Priestly celibacy is not a matter that can be forced on people. Even if their souls are ready for a pious life but their body will not support. They live in this world and their body demands worldly life.
    K J GEORGE
    e-mail” kjgeorge2000@gmail.com

  4. How much longer would Vatican sit on the issue of celibacy. It is a joke. Celibacy must be made optional. If that is not possible the age of entry into seminary must be raised to 25 and study period cut to just three years. To do the sacraments and give sermons one does not require decades of study in a seminary environment. At 25 one is in a better position to decide whether he is capable of practising a celibate life. . You get 25% from class room, 25% from self study, 25% from others and 25% from life experience as such the long period of class room study is a waste for a priestly profession.

  5. All so-called vocation promoters must face the 4Q test – the Quintessential Question of Quality over Quantity. Unfortunately because of the huge number of institutions in the Catholic Church there is now a sense of desperation to pick up just about any docile youngster irrespective of other qualities required for a genuine vocation.

  6. Prevention is better than cure. In its recent Synodal survey the Indian Catholic Forum participants endorsed the view that those entering seminaries or religious institutes should be at least 21 years of age. This will help reduce sexual abuse of minors.

  7. These priests who cannot control themselves, who are not docile to their commitment of religious vows, should go out and have a free life getting married and having family and children. They commit crime also by giving scandals to the faithful. This is worse when a rector abuse the young seminarians who have dreams of serving the Church following Jesus’ example. Woe to them who give scandals and commit adultery and go for offering mass on the alter.

  8. Priestly chastity is an unnatural thing to practice as sex is a basic need. This case again proves this point. We should demand an end to this practice.

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