Indian cardinal denies cover-up of bishop’s offenses
August 08, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has denied reports that he sought to cover up evidence of an Indian bishop’s sexual misconduct.
The cardinal said that a recording of a phone conversation with Bishop Kannikass Antony William of Mysore had been “mischievously edited” to suggest a conspiracy to conceal evidence.
Bishop William has been accused of having several affairs, including some that produced children, and of arranging the killing of priests who urged his removal from office. A Vatican investigation of the charges against Bishop William was begun in 2021, but has not yet produced any result.
The Church Militant web site has obtained a recording of a phone conversation between Cardinal Gracias and Bishop William that apparently took place in 2020. In that recording the cardinal recommends that Bishop William submit to a paternity test, and suggests that it could be done at a friendly Catholic hospital “so we can control the media, control the doctors, control the publicity given to the whole thing.”
Cardinal Gracias acknowledges that he recommended a paternity test, as “the best way to end the controversy.” He denies that he had intended to cover up evidence or “that there was collusion between Bishop William of Mysore and myself.”
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