The Catholic Church has acquitted an HIV-infected priest who has admitted to raping close to 30 young girls between the ages of five and 10 years old.

According to a bombshell report, which appeared in the Spanish-language news site Urgente24.com, the priest, Jose Garcia Ataulfo, was absolved of any wrongdoing by the Archdiocese of Mexico.

Ataulfo has admitted to sexually assaulting indigenous young girls from Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico known for its large indigenous population.

The priest has yet to face any criminal charges, most likely due to the significant influence that the Catholic Church wields in Mexico, particularly in areas populated by indigenous ethnic groups.

According to Urgente24.com, only two of the over two dozen rape victims have come forward to denounce the acquittal.

The website Anonymous Mexico reported that the mother of one of the victims asked to meet with Pope Francis in Rome, but she was rebuffed by the Vatican which wrote a letter stating that it considered the matter closed.

Since assuming the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis has said that the Church would remove bishops who cover up sex crimes committed by priests against children.

Sexual abuse of minors by priests – and the subsequent cover-ups by bishops and other Church officials – have been widespread in many countries, including the United States.

The issue was thrust into the international spotlight in 2002, when the Boston Globe revealed the extent to which the local archdiocese shielded abusive priests from being exposed to the public even though it knew they posed a danger to young parishioners.

The Globe exposé, which detailed abuse cases that numbered in the thousands over a span of several decades, inspired other victims to come forward, leading to an avalanche of lawsuits and criminal prosecutions.

Not only did the floodgates open in the US, but the Catholic Church was also forced to confront cases in other countries, including Mexico.

Similar Brazenness Displayed by Church in Bharat too

In April this year, the Vatican has directed the South India Catholic Church to reinstate an Indian Catholic priest, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, who was convicted of sexually assaulting minor girls in Minnesota, USA.

When questioned, the spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India refused to comment on the Ootacamund diocese’ decision.

Still, the intelligentsia of Bharat such as Sudheendra Kulkarni claim that the head of the international Catholic Church, the ‘Holy See’, i.e. the Pope is the moral conscience keeper of the world.

‘#PopeFrancis is moral conscience keeper of the world’
My interview to Vatican Radio in #Assisi. #peaceispossible https://t.co/0CEbVpJEDD

— Sudheendra Kulkarni (@SudheenKulkarni) September 22, 2016

Our English language media and civil society fawns over every proclamation of the Pope while demonizing or sneering down upon Hindu seers and sadhus like  Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi or Baba Ramdev.

A historical fact that has been effectively suppressed across the world is the cruel subjugation of indigenous people across the world by Christian missionaries.

The same tale of torture, exploitation, physical and cultural genocide, inquisitions, forced separation of children – all in the name of ‘civilizing barbarians’ and spreading ‘good news of the gospel’ – was repeated in continents of North & South America, Africa and Asia. Of course, the template was originally perfected by exterminating pagans from Europe.

And today, the same icons of the Catholic Church who employed inhuman methods to forcefully convert millions to the ‘one true faith’ are foisted as ‘saints’ on the very people whose ancestors were brutalized – Fray Junipero Serra & Frances Xavier being two prime examples. One needs to decolonize their mind to acknowledge this reality.

(This news has been curated from a Mail Online report; Featured image credit: Getty Images/EyeEm)