Several Catholic groups in India have expressed relief after the Vatican removed its controversial envoy from the country.
Pope Francis on August 29 suddenly transferred Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, to Brazil amid accusations of inaction against allegedly corrupt bishops.
“I saw the nuncio’s transfer as a small moral victory, not something to gloat about, but more a sense of relief,” chhotebhai, coordinator of the Indian Catholic Forum and former president of the All India Catholic Union, the largest lay association in the country, told NCR.
Chhotebhai says he had taken up with the nuncio issues such as the controversy around then-Bishop Gallela Prasad of Cuddapah, in the southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. Prasad faced a criminal complaint for allegedly misappropriating diocesan funds to lead a luxurious life with his alleged wife and son.
Another request to the nuncio was to act against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who has been accused of raping a nun multiple times.
However, the Vatican later removed Prasad from his post, and accepted Mulakkal’s request for temporary resignation to face the court case. The apostolic nunciature in New Delhi did not respond to request for comment for this story, or on the accusations made against Diquattro during his tenure in India. The Holy See press office also did not respond to a request for comment. Vikram K. Antony, a Catholic politician in Bengaluru, says he had written to the nuncio about the arrest of a few priests in the murder of a seminary rector. “There was no action or inquiry into our complaints,” he told NCR.
Another person happy with the nuncio’s transfer is Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian who accompanies the rape survivor nun and her supporters.
Sr Anupama Kelama-ngalathuveli, the spokes-person for the survivor and her supporters, corrobora-ted Abraham’s narration of the developments. She, however, declined to talk further as the trial in the case began on August 13.
Saldanha, who has headed women’s offices under bishops’ conferences in Asia and India, dismisses Diquattro’s tenure in India as insignificant.
John Dayal, current spokesperson of the All India Catholic Union, says people complained against Diquattro because of their ignorance about a nuncio’s role.
A nuncio, according to Dayal, is “not a monitor, or a policeman and magistrate, to admonish, administer instant justice or mete out punishment.” Every bishop, he explains, is sovereign in his diocese and answerable only to the Pope.