A Catholic priest was arrested in Kerala for alleged rape of a minor which led to her pregnancy, police said on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old gave birth to a baby at a private hospital last month and the accused had shifted both the mother and the newborn to an orphanage in north Kerala’s Wayanad to hush up the incident.

Image credit : Outlook

Father Robin Vaddakumchiryil (48), the vicar of St Sebastian church in Kottiyoor, was arrested after the girl narrated the incident to officials of childline, a telephone helpline for children in distress. Childline officials then tipped off police.

“The priest also made an attempt to implicate the girl’s father in the case. Since the family is from an economically weaker section he tried to implicate him and told many about this,” said deputy superintendent of police Prajeesh, who uses only his first name. The priest was planning to travel to Canada to evade arrest, he said.
A police official said the priest was the chief guest at a function organised recently against crime against children. He was also known to have spoken on the issue earlier.

Vadakkumchery was trying to leave the country but was held up over visa when he was picked up by the police.
A sources in church said “A priest can leave the country or work abroad only with the Bishop’s consent. Fr Vadakkumchery was trying to leave the country so the Church must have been aware of the crime and did not report it.”

In the recent past, the number of cases of sexual abuse against priests has been rising—an indication that the faithful, who have been suffering in silence, are no longer willing to keep quiet.

Theists believe without god belief and religion there will be moral bankruptcy. Actually it is the opposite. Humanity will be much better off without  religion, gods and priests.