da: The New York Times
NEW DELHI — A Roman Catholic priest in southern India charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Minnesota in 2004 said Tuesday that he would return to face the charges, though he and his supervising bishop in India said they did not know about the criminal charges until reporters contacted them. But letters released Tuesday by a lawyer for the Holy See in the United States show that the priest, the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, was told by his diocesan administrator in India of the accusations in 2005 and urged to cooperate with church and civil authorities. He continues to work in an administrative position in the Diocese of Ootacamund.The lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, said that the Vatican had recommended that the priest be defrocked but that canon law dictated that the decision rested with his superiors in India. They ordered him to undergo counseling and…