"I know that the victims that our group has brought to Cardinal Gracias have been silenced," Saldanha told CNA.
Saldanha began working for the Archdiocese of Bombay in 1991 and later went on to serve as the diocesan secretary for the commission for women, where she particularly tried to get the Church to speak out about societal violence against women.
"I tried to raise awareness but I kept coming up against a wall. I felt that the Church was not serious about this," she said.
In the years since, the diocese has created a gender policy. "And what do they do with their gender policy? I teach it every year to our seminarians, but that is about it. How effective is it? Not at all," Saldanha said.
"In India, we've had so many cases of all these great religious teachers abusing women, Hindus also, they have been abusing women," she said.
"It is not just India, it is all of Asia, the culture is that way … people will not speak out because Confucian culture also says, 'you have to save face' you know? Protect the name of the Church, so when a victim has to speak out, they have to think first how they are going to be affected," she explained.
"It is a global problem. We know this from survivors around the world," Peter Isle, director of Ending Clergy Abuse told press before meeting with the Vatican organizing committee for the summit.
"The same obstacles, the same non-transparency, the same irresponsibility that we've seen over and over again by Church officials, that is happening all over the world," he continued.
"If you had to pick one form of zero tolerance it is this one: zero tolerance for any bishop or cardinal who has covered up for child sex crimes," Isle said.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.