TWO PROMINENT INDIAN BISHOPS MUST GO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 08-17-2022.

Ending Clergy Abuse Calls for India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias and Bishop Kannikadass William Antony to be removed from office.

Ending Clergy Abuse, an international association of survivor/advocates, Ecaglobal.org , along with Joseph Kennedy, an ECA representative from India, calls upon Pope Francis to immediately remove Oswald Gracias and Kannikadass William Antony from the offices of Cardinal and bishop.

In an audio conversation recently made public by Church Militant, India’s Cardinal Gracias can be heard speaking to Bishop William Antony of the Mysore Diocese in southwestern India, on how to manage and control a paternity test for Antony, accused of fathering a child.

In a video posted online Aug. 7, Gracias attempts to rebut allegations he had arranged for Bishop William Antony to take a paternity test at a Catholic hospital in order to control the outcome of the test results to determine William’s fatherhood of a child

Gracias said the audio clip from a two-year-old conversation with Antony had been “mischievously edited” to give the impression that there was collusion between Bishop William and Gracias for a cover-up.

However what Gracias calls mischievous editing was simply a shortening of a longer conversation with William Antony and not a manipulation of the content of the call.

In the phone call Gracias is heard telling William Antony that Gracias would arrange for a paternity test to be conducted at a Catholic hospital “so we can control the media, control the doctors, control the publicity given to the whole thing.”

The cardinal also tells Antony that should the bishop come out “completely clear” from the test, “we can then publicize and you will come out like a hero and a martyr … who suffered something unfairly.”

To date Antony has not taken a paternity test or, if so, the results have not been made public

The Vatican has been on notice for at least 3 years of Williams Antony’s behavior and possible criminal behavior and has not taken appropriate and strong action against him.

Antony has been accused by some of his own priests of fathering a child and of intimidating a survivor of sexual harassment. Other more serious charges are alleged. A Vatican investigation of him is ongoing.

A three-member Vatican commission has been examining evidence against Antony since March 2021. It was set up after 37 priests from Antony’s diocese wrote to Francis in July 2019 demanding that Antony resign and alleging Antony had fathered a child. It is inexcusable that after 3 years of reporting and investigation that the Vatican Commission cannot make a finding and that William Antony has not been sanctioned.

Gracias behavior is not only egregious in this case but the recorded conversation reveals a sophistication of his abilities to cover up not only this case but other scandals with the full knowledge if not authorization from the Vatican.

ECA calls upon Pope Francis to immediately remove Oswald Gracias and William Antony from the offices of cardinal and bishop.

ECA Board:

Timothy Law – USA

Sara Oviedo – Ecuador

Denise Buchanan – Jamaica

Simone Padavoni – Italy

Adalberto Mendez – Mexico

ECA representative: Joseph Kennedy – India