Issue :   
February 2020 Edition of Power Politics is updated.
Issue:Feb' 2020

CHURCH POINTER

In the name of faith

Santosh Kumar

Lucy Kalappurakkal All is not lost for Sister Lucy Kalappurakkal, the Kerala nun who dared to rebel by coming out on the streets in traditional holy robes demanding the arrest of a Bishop accused of raping a nun multiple times. A local court on Thursday stayed till January 1 her expulsion from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) in Manathavady Wayanad, to which she belonged.
The Congregation had expelled Sister Lucy on August 7 for “failing to give a satisfactory explanation” for her lifestyle in violation of rules. The Congregation, under the Roman Catholic Church, had said she was issued “proper canonical warnings”, but did not show the needed remorse. Sister Lucy had published poems in Malayalam magazines, purchased a car, driving around freely and spending money without the permission of her superiors.
In a letter to her, dated August 5, Superior General of the FCC, Sister Ann Joseph had said, “You are hereby dismissed from the Franciscan Christ Congregation as you failed to give a satisfactory explanation for your lifestyle in violation of the proper law of the FCC.”

In a letter to Lucy, dated August 5, Superior General of the FCC, Sister Ann Joseph had said, “You are hereby dismissed from the Franciscan Christ Congregation as you failed to give a satisfactory explanation for your lifestyle in violation of the proper law of the FCC.” It was reported that the decision to dismiss the nun was taken “unanimously” at the Congregation’s general council on May 11 last year.

It was reported that the decision to dismiss the nun was taken “unanimously” at the Congregation’s general council on May 11 last year. This was then sent to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Vatican through the Nuntiature in New Delhi. On August 5, the Congregation claimed it received a communication from the “Apostolic Sec” approving the dismissal. Sister Lucy has contested this as she has not got any reply from the Vatican regarding her petitions.

Now, in a bitter embarrassment to the church, Sister Lucy, who has been waging a lone battle, has come out with an autobiography, Karthavinte Namathil (In the Name of Christ) explicitly depicting sexual abuse and harassment going on in the Congregation. Excerpts from the book, published by one of the leading publishers in Malayalam literature, DC Books, were recently published in Samakalika Malayalam Varika.

In the book, Sister Lucy talks about consensual sexual relationships between priests and nuns in convents and misuse of positions by priests and bishops to sexually abuse the nuns. “The experiences I know of, that some of my sisters have been through, are horrendous. I am aware of some convents, where young novice nuns are sent to priests for their ‘pleasure’ as a matter of practice. They were made to pose nude or the priests for hours. They wouldn’t be permitted to leave even when they plead,” Sister Lucy writes in the book.

It was on June 27, 2018 that a nun, currently residing at the St Francis Mission House, Kuravingad, had approached the District Police chief, Kottayam, with a complaint against Bishop Franco Mulakkal. As per the prosecution’s case, Bishop Franco had raped and forced her to have unnatural sex on many occasions between 2014 and 2017. The Church vehemently denied the charges and stood solidly behind the Bishop. The Church even tried to depict the nun as a ‘loose woman.

The Left Front government, too, fearing backlash from the community tried to ignore the case. It took five sisters from Kuravilangad House to stage a dharna in Kochi, forcing the government to act. Soon after, a special investigation team was formed, which arrested Mulakkal after several rounds of questioning. Subsequently, he was removed from the post of bishop.

After weeks in judicial custody, Mulakkal secured bail from the Kerala High Court. Still the Church and the Bishop used their money power to silence the protesters. A month after the rape trial begun, the police officer who investigated the charges was summarily transferred, triggering allegations that the move was aimed at weakening the case. A key witness, also a priest, died in mysterious circumstances. Sister Lucy Kala Kalappurakkal was in the forefront of that agitation, being a part of the Save Our Sisters Forum (SOS), an outfit formed in the wake of the nuns’ protest. Ever since she took part in the sit-in, Sister Lucy has been hounded by the Church authorities.

Interestingly, Sister Lucy is not the first Malayali nun to come out and write an autobiography. Amen, An Autobiography of a Nun, published in February 2009, was written by Dr Sister Jesme, who was the Principal of St Mary’s College, Thrissur when she quit the Congregation of Mother Carmelite (CMC). Sister Jesme, who had been a nun for over 30 years, quit the Church alleging harassment by her superiors. Dedicated to Jesus, Amen, too, was explicit in its details of corruption in the Church; the sexual exploitation and harassment the nuns had to undergo in nunneries throughout the state.

In a telling passage she had written about a particular encounter she had with a priest in Bangalore while on her way to Dharwar to attend a UGC refresher course in English. “My plan was to stay at the waiting room at the Bangalore railway station. But sisters in the convent gave me the address of a pious, decent priest.

When I reached Bangalore, the priest was waiting to receive me. He embraced me and took me to his presbytery. After breakfast, he took me to Lalbagh (Botanical Gardens) and showed me several pairs cuddling behind trees. He also gave me a sermon on the necessity of physical love and described illicit affairs certain bishops and priests had.” Later when they were in his room, he stripped and made her do the same.

Citing another incident, she had written, “I was sent to teach plus-two students in St Maria College. There, a new sister joined to teach Malayalam, she was a lesbian. When she tried to corner me, I had no way but to succumb to her wishes. She would come to my bed in the nigh and do lewd acts and I could not stop her.” During her time in the Church, Jesme, too, ran into trouble with the establishment. “It’s only got the worse, year after year,” Jesme, who now lives in Kozhikode, says.

That reminds us about one of the best sellers, denounced by the Vatican, first published in 1984, In God’s Name, by David Yallop, an investigation into the murder of Pope John Paul I, who died only thirtythree days after his election on 26 August 1978.