Priest Allegedly Sexually Assaults A 12-Year-Old Boy, A Shocking First For Mumbai Catholic Church

My boy is not the same jovial person that he was. He has changed," says the mother of a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly molested by his parish priest in November last year.

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"Our boy had started considering us his enemies because we did not take him seriously at first. He refused to go to the church and feared meeting the Father but we thought he was just being difficult."

It's a double whammy for the family - not only are the parents grappling with the trauma that their son went through but also the guilt that they did not believe him when he first complained. The boy's father who was born and brought up under the Govandi parish said that his son had first complained about Father Johnson Lawrence in August last year. The family, however, brushed aside the incident without ever linking his changed behaviour and physical issues to a sexual assault.

"He had complained of bleeding that time and we thought it could be due to over consumption of non-vegetarian food," said the father.

The boy is undergoing counselling sessions at a health centre run by the Sion Hospital to help him deal with the traumatic experience. His mother says that the sessions have helped. "He has mellowed down. Before that, he had stopped talking to his father and me. He did not step out to play and even stopped going for his tuition classes," says the mother, a housewife. The mother noticed something was amiss when the boy and his younger brother returned from service at the church on November 27. "They had some programme in the church and the kids were helping to remove the decorations. What he narrated after coming back home still gives me the chills," she says.

In the complaint, the minor had said that Johnson had asked him to keep a box of bulbs in his cabin. He soon followed him to the cabin.

After locking the cabin, he undressed the boy and sexually assaulted him. This is the first case of sexual assault involving a priest in the Catholic Church in Mumbai.

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The Shivaji Nagar police had registered a case under section 377 (unnatural sex) of the IPC and booked him under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Johnson continues to be in judicial custody as the final reports are awaited from the Forensic Science Laboratory at Kalina. The church is also awaiting the final word from the police. Last week, a three-member committee set up to investigate the allegations submitted its report to Cardinal Oswald Gracias. The report will soon be forwarded to the Vatican. The parents have demanded a thorough investigation into the case. "The priest should be defrocked. The Archdiocese should also find out if other children have faced this," said the boy's father.

Police inspector Hussain Jatkar, the investigating officer of the case, said that the police had made inquiries in the area but no one had come forward with similar complaints against the priest.

The boy's father is also bitter with the Archdiocese. "Except for taking our statements, no one from the Archdiocese had come forward for counselling or to take a look at how our son was coping with the trauma." The spokesperson of the Archdiocese, Father Nigel Barrett, said that they had offered counselling to the victim but he was not aware if the family had taken up the offer. "The investigating team has completed its inquiry and has submitted its findings to the Cardinal. The normal procedure is that this report would be submitted to the respective committee in the Vatican and, based on the report, further action would be initiated," he added.

He said that the Archdiocese had taken the complaint very seriously. Father Johnson has been a priest for over 15 years. Some of the parishes he served include Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Orlem, Malad; Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Goregaon (West); and Sacred Heart Church, Vashi. "The average term for a priest in a parish is between 3 to 6 years," said Barrett.