By Jose Kavi
Kochi: The Syro-Malabar Church on July 19 bemoaned that some vested interests were circulating an audio-clip of a Catholic nun’s telephonic conversation with Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the Oriental rite, to mislead the public.
“The telephonic conversation is real. The religious sister speaks about the difficulties she faced in her congregation. She does not mention about the sexual abuse she had faced at any time during the talk,” says a press release issued by the Church’s spokesperson Father Jimmy Poochakkatt.
Earlier in the day, social media platforms and media outlets in Kerala published the nun’s nearly 45 minutes of talk with the cardinal complaining her difficulties from Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, a northern Indian diocese where her congregation, Missionaries of Jesus, is based.
The conversation apparently took place before the nun on June 29 filed a case against Bishop Mulakkal in Kerala, her native place where she has been living for years.
In her complaint to the police, the nun, who is in her mid 40s, alleged that the 55-year-old prelate had in 2014 sexually abused her at their convent in Kuravilangad in Kottayam district. The prelate continue to abuse her 12 more times between 2014 and 2016, she added.
Bishop Mulakkal and officials of Jalandhar diocese dismissed the case as an act of vendetta by the nun.
Father Peter Kavumpuram, public relations officer of Jalandhar diocese, said the nun went to the police ten days after the diocese filed a police case in Kerala’s Kottayam town against her brother who had sent life threatening letters to Bishop Mulakkal. The nun has made several charges against the bishop and her superiors after she was removed from her posts in the congregation, the priest alleged.
This is the first sexual abuse case against a bishop in India where several priests have been arrested for the crime.
The nun also claimed that she had complained to Cardinal Alencherry, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the apostolic nuncio in New Delhi about her abused by the prelate.
Cardinal Alencherry, who was in Rome when the nun filed the case and made other claims, denied to media persons that he had received any sexual abuse complaints from the nun.
The Kerala Police team probing the case on July 18 questioned Cardinal Alencherry, who reiterated that the nun had not given him any complaint on the alleged sexual abuse by the bishop. He admitted that the nun had met him in 2017 but she had spoken to him about some matters concerning her convent and not about sexual abuse.
He also reportedly told the probe team that he could do nothing about it as the matter was related not to his Syro-Malabar Church but to the Latin Catholic Church. He said he had advised the nun to take up the matter with the superiors in that Church.
He told the police that he did not reveal the content of the nun’s complaint to anyone as she herself had told him that the matter was of secret nature. Also, the question of contacting the police did not arise as no complaint had been given to him about sexual abuse, the cardinal added.
The Mathrubhumi (motherland), a newspaper in Kerala, asserts that the voice clips proved that the nun had complained to the cardinal.
A complaint is pending with the Kochi police seeking legal action against the cardinal for failing to inform the authorities even after getting a complaint about sexual abuse, it added.
The cardinal “had said to the police in the 2-hour long questioning session that he didn’t receive complaints about sexual abuse,” it added.
In the voice clip, the nun warns the cardinal that matters were getting complicated and out of control as the police had filed a case.
“Police had called from Jalandhar. They said that they received complaint that we tried to blackmail Father Peter. They said that I, Mother General and Anupama were behind the blackmail. I said that I am living in Kerala.
“Then they asked me, how long I have been here. They inquired if I have ever been to Punjab. I said no and added that I don’t know Father Peter. Today, I have received the letter of general. She asked me to come to Jalandhar,” the nun is heard telling the cardinal.
Father Poochakkatt’s statement repeated what the cardinal reportedly told the police. He also decried attempts to mislead the faithful and society by ridiculing the Church and Church leadership.
Cyriac Sebastian, editor of newsatindia.com, notes that the cardinal was logical and mild throughout his talk with the nun explaining to her why he could not act on her complaint as she belonged to a Latin diocese and a Latin rite congregation.
Sebastian alleged that certain people, who have been targeting the cardinal for the past several months, now try to divert the public attention from the Jalandhar bishop to the Syro-Malabar chief.