By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The dismissal of a Catholic nun from a Kerala-based religious congregation has drawn various reactions.
The National Commission for Women has intervened in the incident where Sister Lucy Kalapura was expelled from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation.
The New Delhi-based Commission on June 19 wrote to Sister Ann Joseph, superior general of the 130-year-old congregation seeking an explanation for ordering Sister Kalapura to vacate the convent.
The Commission has also asked the Kerala government to provide all possible support to Sister Kalapura.
Sister Joseph on June 13 ordered Sister Lucy Kalapura to vacate the convent at Kakkamala in Kerala’ Wayanad district ala after the Vatican’s Supreme Tribunal categorically dismissed her revision petition against her dismissal.
Sister Kalapura, however, refused to move out as her petition against her dismissal is pending in a Kerala court.
In another development, a former judge of the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts has urged the Vatican to withdraw confirmation of the expulsion of the nun who had stood up against a bishop who had alleged raped a nun multiple times.
Justice Michael F Saldanha wrote to the Signatura Apostolica in Rome and the Apostolic Nunciature in Delhi on June 17, seeking a “fair hearing” for Sister Lucy Kalappura “in keeping with the rules of natural justice which apply to every law”.
The congregation had sacked Sister Kalapura in August 2019.
Sister Kalapura had angered the congregation in September 2018 by visiting five nuns who were staging a public protest in Kochi and expressing solidarity with them.
The nuns were seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who had allegedly raped a nun 13 times between 2014 and 2016 at a convent in Kuravilangad, Kottayam, Kerala. Mulakkal was eventually arrested but the trial is now underway in a Kottayam court.
After being ordered to leave the Mananthavady, Wayanad, convent following her sacking, Sister Lucy had in December 2019 petitioned a local civil court and obtained an injunction on the eviction order, while continuing to appeal to the Vatican against her expulsion.
The Mumbai-based Justice Saldanha has offered to represent Sister Lucy before the Vatican.
“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 says.
It adds that the communication Sister Lucy recently received about the rejection of her final appeal was a “very doubtful and mutilated communication” since the Vatican was closed when it was issued.
While the covering letter in English from the Supreme Tribunal of the Signatura Apostolica in Rome was dated May 27, 2020, the directive written in Latin was dated May 27, 2021.
Justice Saldanha said May 27, 2020, fell within a four-month period during which the Vatican had shut down because of the pandemic and a vacation.
“How such an order could have been passed when the office (of the Vatican) was closed and not working is something which you are called upon to explain because the consequences are serious in so far as it clearly establishes that the order is fabricated,” Justice Saldanha’s letter says.
After the Supreme Tribunal rejected Sister Lucy’s appeal, the superior-general asked her to vacate the convent within a week after handing over her habits and whatever else that belonged to the order. Failing this, her continuance would be considered “criminal house trespass,” the communication warned.
Justice Saldanha’s letter says such regulations are “illegal and unconstitutional, ostensibly based on Canon Law which cannot override the Constitution of India and the laws of this country”.
The former judge told The Telegraph on June 18 that the Church had not given Sister Lucy a “fair trial” and the nuncio summarily threw out the nun’s appeals.
Justice Saldanha had earlier written to the superior-general on June 13 seeking a reply in 10 days and asking the congregation not to intimidate or harass the nun. “I’m yet to get a reply,” he said.
Sister Lucy told the Telegraph that she harbored hopes about her civil court petition. After one hearing, the judge had got transferred and then the Covid outbreak delayed matters.
“The next hearing is on June 26. I have complete faith in our judiciary,” she said.
Sister Lucy recently retired as a teacher from a school run by another congregation in Mananthavady.
“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.
The eviction deadline set by the superior-general ends on June 20, but Sister Kalapura said she had no plans to leave because she had nowhere else to go. The civil court’s injunction on her eviction still stands.