KOCHI:The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) on Monday said it “regrets over the happenings” that led to the arrest of Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal, and hoped “the truth will come to light in the court and that the accused gets sufficient opportunity to prove his innocence, and that if the accusation is proved right the culprit will get the due punishment which the law envisages.”
In a two-page statement, Fr Varghese Vallikkatt, deputy secretary general and spokesman for KCBC, said the Council prays that justice takes place in the matter.
“It is not to be forgotten that any conscious attempts at tarnishing the person, honour and the dignity of the complainant and the accused are not in keeping with justice and fairness,” the statement said. Advising the faithful to discern “those people who, under the cover of this case, try to destabilise the Catholic Church and malign the bishops,” KCBC termed these people as those who are “jealous about the Church.” “We should be vigilant about those who try to put down the Church on account of an accusation against a single individual,” KCBC said, adding, it was painful that “an accusation of sexual molestation raised against a bishop of the Catholic Church, some with vested interests and some sections of the media have taken it as an occasion to implicate the Church and the bishops as a whole, without even having the investigation completed.”
It stated that there was a concerted effort to cause disrepute within the Church by destroying the internal discipline, obedience to authority and its unity. KCBC said not just the members of the Catholic Church but the public should recognise the “hidden agenda” behind such moves.