The most disappointing part of this entire story is
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai tried to broker a
solution by calling upon Edamaruku to apologise and on
Catholic groups to drop their case in return.
The Cardinal should have upheld the freedom on expression of Edamaruku rather than giving in to the fundamentalists. Instead, he tried to conjure up a political solution.
Bear in mind that the outrage was only partially about the debunking of the miracle, but also about the suggestion that it had been engineered by the church to fleece people. My personal experience is that people will basically put up with having factual errors pointed out (even if they feel embarrassed by it), but imputing motivations is both pointless (because intent is often not amenable to proof) and dangerous (because people take that kind of thing far more personally).
I get your point but I still find the Cardinal's response lukewarm. The Cardinal should have just said that the church did not do it to fleece people or collect money.
