By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, Jan 21, 2022: The head of India’s more than 125,000 Catholic religious has urged Cardinal Oswald Gracias to reach out to the survivor nun and her supporters in the recently concluded rape case.

“While these are issues that require lengthy discussions and procedure, we would like the Church authorities to at least now, try and reach out to the survivor and her companions and offer support to them in whatever way possible, including financial, spiritual and psychological,” says a letter Apostolic Carmel Sister Mary Nirmalini wrote to the cardinal, who is the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Sister Nirmalini, the president of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), sent the January 20 letter nearly a week after a court in Kerala, southern India, acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar in the historic nun rape case.

Additional District and Sessions Court Judge G. Gopakumar January 14 said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the bishop.

The survivor, a former superior general of the Missionaries of Jesus, a Jalandhar diocesan congregation, had in June 2018 accused Bishop Mulakkal of raping her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The court that heard 39 prosecution and five defense witnesses dismissed the survivor’s allegation as unreliable citing several discrepancies in her statement.

“When it is not feasible to separate truth from falsehood, when grain and chaff are inextricably mixed up, the only available course is to discard the evidence in toto,” said Judge Gopakumar in his verdict.

“In the said circumstances, this court is unable to place reliance on the solitary testimony of a rape victim and to hold the accused guilty of the offences charged against him. I accordingly acquit the accused of the offences,” the judge added.

Sister Nirmalini, who also heads the CRI women section, says she wrote the letter “with a heavy heart as I have been inundated with so many phone calls from both religious men and women as well as lay women from around India” after the verdict.

“The issue here is not that most religious women are completely taken aback with a totally unexpected verdict against the sisters, but a section of the clergy and people have been celebrating the verdict as a victory for the Church,” the CRI president laments.

She points out that from the beginning of the case, the victim and her companions were subjected to all kinds of innuendos and insults. Hardly any Church authorities supported them, she says.

“How come a bishop who is accused of raping is part of the Church and the victim along with her supporters are not? In our opinion this is shameful. In addition most of the sisters, including me, express a complete disbelief and shock at the verdict in the said case where sisters have been apparently denied justice.”

Similar questions were raised earlier by the Sisters in Solidarity, a national forum of Catholic women, both religious and lay.

Sister Nirmalini says women religious in India express their solidarity with “the victim survivor and her companions who have walked with the victim with lot of courage, dignity and determination in their fight for justice.”

The letter, endorsed by all officials of the CRI women section, commends the “prophetic role” of the survivor’s supporter who raised their voice against “an unjust and appalling system, within the Church.”

The letter regrets that nobody had paid attention to the victim when she approached several Church authorities before being forced to go public and to the court to seek justice.

“Her companion sisters had the grit to fight the power and might of Bishop Franco. The sisters, with no financial backing or support from the Church, went through their dignity being stripped as women through many ways in which power was being wielded against them,” says the letter, which many view as the first response of the CRI since the case went to the court.

Sister Nirmalini expressed happiness that the victim and the prosecution plan to appeal against the verdict in the higher court as they feel that justice has been denied to them.

“Whatever the outcome of their appeal in the higher court, our serious concern now is, if the Church has a forum where religious women who suffer sexual abuse from their bosses, be they priests or bishops, can present their cases and where they would be heard sympathetically.”

The CRI president draws the attention of the cardinal, who is among the top advisers of Pope Francis, to the fact that women religious have no power or jurisdiction in the Church, even though they render “incredible service in society and are the face of the Church.”

“Where do we go? Should all religious women knock the doors of the court for justice? We really wonder if this will make other women ever step forward or would leave them with no choice but to suffer in silence,” the letter wonders.

The text of the letter

His Eminence Oswald Gracias,
Archbishop of Bombay,
President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Bombay

Date: 20th January 2022

Your Eminence Oswald Cardinal Gracias,

I am writing to you and copying the letter to other Church dignitaries in my capacity as the new president of the women’s section of the CRI as well as the newly elected National CRI President.

I write this mail with a heavy heart as I have been inundated with so many phone calls from both religious men and women as well as lay women from around India after the verdict in Franco Mulakkal’s case last week, in which he has been acquitted.

The issue here is not that most religious women are completely taken aback with a totally unexpected verdict against the sisters, but a section of the clergy and people have been celebrating the verdict as a victory for the Church. Right from the beginning of the case, the victim sister and her companions were subjected to all kinds of innuendos and insults. Hardly any Church authorities supported them. How come a bishop who is accused of raping is part of the Church and the victim along with her supporters are not? In our opinion this is shameful. In addition most of the sisters, including me, express a complete disbelief and shock at the verdict in the said case where sisters have been apparently denied justice.

As women religious we express our solidarity with the victim survivor and her companions who have walked with the victim with lot of courage, dignity and determination in their fight for justice.

It is indeed commendable that they played a prophetic role by raising their voice against an unjust and appalling system, within the Church. Nobody paid any attention to the victim who approached several Church authorities before she was made to go public and to the court to seek justice. Her companion sisters had the grit to fight the power and might of Bishop Franco. The sisters with no financial backing or support from the Church, went through their dignity being stripped as women through many ways in which power was being wielded against them.

I am told that the victim and the prosecution together are going to appeal against the verdict in the higher court as they feel that justice has been denied to them. I have been reading many analytical articles on the verdict.

Whatever the outcome of their appeal in the higher court, our serious concern now is, if the Church has a forum where religious women who suffer sexual abuse from their bosses, be they priests or bishops, can present their cases and where they would be heard sympathetically. As you know well, while the religious women are rendering incredible service in society and are the face of the Church, we have no power or jurisdiction. Where do we go? Should all religious women knock the doors of the Court for justice? We really wonder if this will make other women ever step forward or would leave them with no choice but to suffer in silence.

While these are issues that require lengthy discussions and procedure, we would like the Church authorities to at least now, try and reach out to the survivor and her companions and offer support to them in whatever way possible, including financial, spiritual and psychological.

Thanking you in advance for your attention and with regards and prayers

Sr. M. Nirmalini A.C. CRI National President
Sr Teresa Kandlakunta JMJ Vice President, CRI Women’s Section
Sr. Norah SJC Secretary, CRI Women’s Section
Sr. Ann Jose CSST Treasurer, CRI Women’s Section
Sr. Delphinal Stella Baltazar FMM Executive Member, CRI Women’s Section
Sr Dr. Soosaamma CTC Executive Member, CRI Women’s Section
Sr. Arokia Mary SAT Executive Member, CRI Women’s Section