By Matters India Reporter
Karakkamala, October 28, 2019: Sister Lucy Kalappura, who was expelled from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC), wants to appeal in person against her dismissal before the Pope and the Church’s highest tribunal.
In her letter to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Pontifical Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Sister Kalappura alleges that her congregation took the ‘disciplinary action’ for participating in a sit-in at Kochi last year to demand the arrest of a bishop who alleged raped a nun.
The Vatican congregation dismissed Sister Kalappura’s first appeal challenging her dismissal for “failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle in violation of FCC laws.”
However, the congregation allowed the 54-year-old nun to present a new recourse to the Segnatura Apostolica, the supreme tribunal in the Vatican.
“I am deeply obliged for providing me the opportunity for a further appeal to the Supreme Tribunal of the Segnatura Apostolica. It is desired, in this connection, that an opportunity be granted to me to appear in person before the Tribunal to enable me to present to its honorable members my side of the situation.
“It is requested, further, that I be granted an opportunity to present my case to Pope Francis, whom I venerate and in whose sense of justice I have absolute faith,” the nun said in her letter to Cardinal Sandri.
Sister Kalappura, who took part in a protest by nuns belonging to Missionaries of Jesus Congregation, seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was expelled in August.
In her letter, the nun said the FCC congregation initiated ‘disciplinary action’ against her.
“In my case too, what purports to be ‘disciplinary action’, and what in reality are reprisals, against me commenced only after I stood by the sisters of the Missionaries of Jesus in their efforts to secure justice for the outraged nun. This is amply evident from the show cause notice issued to me, a copy of which is attached for ready reference,” she said.
“I wish to urge strenuously that the actions initiated against me, and the vindictiveness it reeks of, cannot be understood aright, if they are seen in isolation from the Franco Mulakkal matter as the trigger.
“I fervently hope that the honorable members of the Tribunal would appreciate the truth that I am a collateral victim of this Franco Mulakkal scandal, in regard to which the mettle of the Church’s commitment to truth and justice is being tested in full public view,” she wrote.
“It does not have to be argued that the Holy See being made to be seen as partisan in this case, or as hostile to justice being available to a rape victim, is sure to discredit the witness and integrity of the Catholic Church for the years to come.
“It is shortsighted to coerce nuns to perjure in legal proceedings in the hope that the ends of justice can be stalled thereby. It is bound to result in extreme and undying infamy to the Church,” Sister Kalappura warns in the letter.
She submitted that the Mulakkal case has already attained unprecedented public attention and people of diverse persuasions are seized of how it is going to pan out.
“What aggravates its repugnance is that it has burst into public attention amidst a series of corruption charges and criminal acts ascribed to church leaders of diverse denominations in Kerala.
“The only thing that will salvage the credibility of the Catholic Church in this context is to be seen as committed to truth and justice, without fear or favor. Attempts to the contrary are sure to be self-condemnatory; a concern that I cannot disown,” the nun said.
In its notice to the nun early in January, the congregation termed as “grave violations” Sister Lucy possessing a driving license, buying a car, taking a loan for it and publishing a book and spending money without the permission and knowledge of her superiors.
The nun dismissed charges leveled against her by the congregation, saying many of them were a “deliberate attempt to paint her in bad light.”
In its notices, the FCC alleged the nun violated its dress code in public without any permission and caused grave external scandal and harm to the Church by participating in the protest by ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ on September 20, 2018 at Kochi, seeking the arrest of Bishop Mulakkal.
The FCC, a 130-year-old congregation under the Syro-Malabar Church, said the nun was issued “proper canonical warnings,” but did not show the needed remorse.
The Segnatura Apostolica, the highest tribunal of the Holy See; was created by Pope Eugenius IV in the 13th century. Pope Paul VI reconstituted it in 1967, assigning two areas of competency.
It handles tribunals already established, pilgrimages to Rome, matrimonial cases of nullity, erection of regional and interregional tribunals, handling cases involving concordats between various nations and the Holy See.
Another duty is to settle disputes arising from acts of administrative ecclesiastical power as a court of appeal, deciding on administrative controversies sent to it by the congregations of the Roman Curia, and judging on controversies submitted by the Pope.