Thread: Convicted priest to be deported after guilty plea

Convicted priest to be deported after guilty plea

By Sarah Volpenhein Today at 1:18 p.m.

A Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl while working as a priest in Minnesota will walk a free man.

Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was sentenced to time already served in jail after pleading guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Roseau County District Court.

As part of a plea agreement with the state, Jeyapaul was sentenced to one year and one day behind bars, time he had already served since his arrest in India in 2012.

Jeyapaul also faced charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a second case out of Roseau County, but those were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Those charges were first filed in 2006 after Megan Peterson, who has spoken publicly about the abuse through the advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, accused him of recurring sexual abuse in 2004 and 2005 when she was 14 and 15 years old.

When asked why those charges were dismissed, special prosecutor Heidi Fisher Davies said, "There were issues that arose that would have made it very difficult to get a conviction."

She declined to discuss any specifics, saying the information that led to the dismissal is confidential information under Minnesota law.

Jeyapaul will be deported to India in the coming days.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news...er-guilty-plea

U.S. archbishop resigns over sex-abuse scandal

Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY6 p.m. EDT June 15, 2015

Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche resigned not long after the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis was charged with failing to protect children from a pedophile priest. VPC


(Photo: Richard Tsong-Taatarii, AP)


The archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis and his auxiliary bishop have resigned after the archdiocese was charged with having failed to protect children from a pedophile priest.

The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché.

Nienstedt is the second U.S. bishop in the Catholic Church to resign as the result of a clergy sex abuse scandal, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.



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The two resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolisas a corporation with having "turned a blind eye" to repeated reports of inappropriate behavior by a priest who later pleaded guilty to molesting two boys.



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No individual was named in the indictment.
In a statement on the archdiocese website, Nienstedt said he submitted his resignation to give the archdiocese "a new beginning."

"My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them.

Thus, my decision to step down," he said. "It has been my privilege the last seven years to serve this local Church. I have come to appreciate deeply the vitality of the 187 parishes that make up the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis."

"I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults," he added. "I ask for continued prayers for the well-being of this Archdiocese and its future leaders. I also ask for your continued prayers for me."



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In a statement on the same website, Piché said: "The people of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis need healing and hope. I was getting in the way of that, and so I had to resign."

Also Monday, the Vatican said Jozef Wesolowski, its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, will face charges that he sexually abused boys and had child pornography on his computer.

The Holy See said Wesolowski will have his first hearing July 11. It's the first time such a high-ranking Vatican official will stand trial for sex abuse.

Last week, Pope Francis approved the first-ever system for judging bishops who fail to protect children, after concerns that Catholic bishops guilty of abusing children have largely escaped punishment.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...cese/71238780/