By Nirmala Carvalho
Mumbai: A retired judge and India’s National Commission for Women are calling for the reversal of a Vatican decision confirming the expulsion of a nun for her order.
Sister Lucy Kalapura, a member of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Kerala, has been an outspoken advocate for a nun who has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar of rape.
In September 2018, she participated in a public demonstration against the bishop against the order of her religious congregation.
She was dismissed from the order in 2019 and told to leave the convent. The congregation said it dismissed her for defiance, violating the norms of the congregation and infringing on the vow of poverty. Kalapura had been given the required canonical warnings but failed to show “needed remorse” and an explanation for her lifestyle in violation of the regulations of the congregation, said the letter signed by Sister Anne Joseph, superior general.
Kalapura refused and appealed to the Vatican.
She was informed June 13 that the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court, had upheld her dismissal.
“There are only three chances for appeal to the Supreme Tribunal. In all these they have rejected my appeal in an unjust manner … without listening to my part. They have taken a decision without trial. They have targeted me,” Kalapura told NDTV.
“Everybody knows the congregation has taken this decision to dismiss me only because I joined protests against Franco Mulakkal, who allegedly sexually abused a simple, humble, poor nun. The support I gave the oppressed one is the particular reason for my dismissal,” she continued.
Justice Michael F. Saldanha, a former judge in Karnataka and Bombay, has written to both the Vatican court and the Vatican embassy calling on for a “fair” hearing for Kalappura “in keeping with the rules of natural justice which apply to every law.”
“I am prepared to represent her/assist her at the hearing as I happen to be a qualified and experienced lawyer and not one who can be bought over by Church funds or intimidated,” his letter, reported in The Telegraph, an Indian newspaper.
Mulakkal was arrested on September 21, 2018, in Kerala after a months-long investigation into the accusations of the nun, unnamed in accordance with Indian law, who claimed he raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The trial against the bishop is in its final stages but has suffered numerous delays attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bishop vehemently denies the charges, and claims the nun is retaliating because he initiated an investigation against her for an affair she allegedly had with a married man.
The nun making the accusation is a member of the Punjab-based Missionaries of Jesus congregation, but said the attacks happened in Kuravilangad, the location of one of the order’s convents in Kerala.
The Mulakkal case has divided the Church in the state of Kerala, the heart of Christianity in India. Most religious leaders – including the superiors of the women’s religious congregations involved – have supported the bishop; while protesters have said it shines a light on the poor conditions of nuns in the Church.
Kalapura has garnered support by even non-Catholics in India, with the National Commission for Women (NCW) calling on the state of Kerala to assist the nun.
“National Commission for Women is distressed with the continuous harassment of Sr Lucy. Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to Chief Secretary, Kerala to provide all possible assistance to Sr Lucy. NCW has also sought an explanation from Sr Ann Joseph, superior general, FCC on the matter,” the NCW tweeted.
Saldanha’s letter also questioned the Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s telling Kalapura to turn over her habit and other property of the convent – which as a vowed religious could include all her possessions – and to leave the house or face charges of “criminal house trespass.”
Saldanha’s said such regulations are “illegal and unconstitutional, ostensibly based on Canon Law which cannot override the Constitution of India and the laws of this country.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Kalapura said she has a hearing scheduled in the Indian civil court on June 26.
“The next hearing is on June 26. I have complete faith in our judiciary,” she said.
She said he was treated poorly by the congregation.
“I’m forced to cook my own food since the convent doesn’t provide me anything. Neither am I allowed to use the chapel, library or any other facility. I enter my room through a side door as I’m not allowed to use the main entrance,” she said.
Kalapura told The Telegraph she won’t leave the convent, since she has nowhere else to go.
Source: cruxnow.com
The principle of natural justice requires that the side of Sr Lucy should be heard and she must get an opportunity to defend her and cross examine the complainants. If this is not done by the Vatican, then something is truly wrong with the judicial process of the Vatican.
Every Organization, NGO, Department, School, College or University suspends, expels or dismisses people who do not abide by the rules and statutes of that particular organization. Sr. Lucy had not been following the rules that she had professed to follow when she became a member of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation. She had signed the terms of contract before her superior and witnesses when she made her first and final profession. Today she is an erring member and she can’t be a member in it. The congregation said it dismissed her for defiance, violating the norms of the congregation and infringing on the vow of poverty. The Superior also said that Lucy had been given the required canonical warnings but failed to show “needed remorse” and an explanation for her lifestyle in violation of the regulations of the congregation. If they don’t take action against erring members, how will they sustain themselves as order which is the largest Women Religious Order in India which produced so many saints. Lucy is only dismissed from the Congregation and not from the Church. She can still be a Christian in the world.
Fr Sunil Rosario is absolutely right in his observation that the above report by Nirmala Carvalo adds nothing new. It is only a potpourri of an earlier report (The Telegraph Calcutta 19 June 2021) on Retired Justice Michael Saldanha volunteering to take up Sr Lucy’s case with the Vatican and concerned authorities.
The only connection this report may have is with the 23 June 2021 report “No Church possible without women religious” conducted by Conference of Religious of India (CRI) on widespread exploitation of Catholic women religious in the Church. Sr Lucy’s case is just the opposite of what has been reported by Sisters Hazel D’Lima and Noella de Souza, who conducted the CRI study. Here nuns are torturing and shaming their fellow nuns (a crow eating another crow’s meat!). While Sr Lucy is fighting for the rights of nuns against exploitation by the Church Hierarchy (repeat sexual abuse by Bishop Franco Mulakkal), her fellow nuns in cahoots with the tainted Bishop, are putting her down and trying their utmost to throw her out of her congregation! Sr Lucy’s congregation FCC is defeating the very foundation and purpose of the CRI Study
The Church has not acted right. It has done much too much to protect Bishop Mulakkal and has failed to give a due hearing to the Sister and exhibited a variation of patriarchy to be avoided by all of us.
This report is a rehash of what has already been reported here. It says nothing new. From earlier reports we are told that disciplinary action against Lucy had begun some years before the Franco case. So is she just using it as a cover up for earlier transgressions? One cannot comment on the Vatican judgement without seeing it. However, drawing a parallel from marriage, is it possible to live and eat in the same house with an estranged or inimical spouse?
Civil law can only address civil rights, like social security, and not whether Lucy may continue as a nun or not. I understand that she was employed as a government school teacher and she continues to enjoy those benefits, including pension. So what is she complaining about?
Does Mr. Saldanha know all the facts?
Most unfair of the authorities. I stand by sister Lucy.
The gospel and the way of Christ ought to be the way of handling erring members in a Religious Congregation rather than the rule book which is only a guide to an orderly life in accordance with the charism of the society. Sr. Lucy should be treated in all Christian charity and not as an outcast just as Judas was treated by Jesus in the group of the apostles.
Certainly not the finest hour of Catholic Church in Kerala. It is heartening though to see others outside the State are getting involved in getting justice for Sr Lucy. Hers is a human rights issue and has to be viewed as such. I am not an expert in Canon Law but it seems, through the conduct of the church establishment, that Canon Law has least respect for human rights. It probably needs to be thoroughly revised to make it track UN convention on human rights and to ensure that its applicability does not contravene sovereign laws of individual countries.
It can’t be termed as harassment. She was harassing a great many number of believers by her impertinent approach towards the disciplinary measures of the congregation where she enjoyed all the rights. It’s true the congregation may be wrong, after all it’s a human instruction. Lucy has been over smart to go beyond the limitations to question and deal with certain developments of which perhaps the congregation did not want to. It’s ego clash. To be a genuine religious one needs to sacrifice his or her ego.
This author of this letter should know that sister Lucy was not dismissed from the congregation for supporting the protesting nuns. Study the case properly madam
Poor Bishop shame on you
It’s not clear d stand Carvalo has taken on D issue of Sr Lucy n Mulakkal. It is D summary of all that hv been reported already.