By Matters India Reporter
Kothamangalam, April 2, 2022: Another mysterious death of a novice nun was reported from Kerala, the southern Indian state with a sizable Catholic population.
According to “Mathrubhumi,” a Malayalam daily newspaper, Anu Alex was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room in the Sacred Heart convent in Kothamangalam, some 55 km northeast of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.
The 21-year-old nun trainee had gone to room at 10:30 pm on April 1. When she did not join a special night prayer in the convent chapel, sisters went to her room and found her hanging. They rushed Alex to a nearby Dharmagiri Hospital where she was declared brought dead.
After completing the autopsy, the body was buried in the cemetery of St Augustine’s Church in Ramapuram, 35 km south of Kothamangalam, deepika.com reported.
The Kothamangalam police have registered a case and completed preliminary enquiry and inquest. They have found a suicide note that says nobody was responsible for her death.
Kerala has reported more than 20 mysterious deaths of nuns in the past few decades. On December 8, 2021, a group of Catholic women drawn from all over India called for a fact-finding team to study frequent cases of Catholic nuns dying by suicide in Indian convents.
The women, calling themselves as “concerned citizens” made the demand in a letter to Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, the newly elected president of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the national body of major superiors of sisters, brothers and religious priests in India.
What prompted the letter was the suicide of a 30-year-old nun November 30, 2021, in the chapel of her convent in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Sister Mary Mercy belonged to the Franciscan Immaculatine Sisters, an Italian congregation founded in 1881.
On April 16, 2021, the body of a 42-year-old Catholic nun was found in a well of a convent at Kureepuzha near Karunagappally town in Kollam district. Sister Mable Joseph was a member of the Pious Workers of St. Joseph, an Italian congregation that manages Maria Agnes English Medium School in Kureepuzha. A suicide note recovered from the nun’s room said that she was taking the drastic step as she is unable to bear the physical difficulties and the issues related to allergy.
On May 7, 2020, the body of Divya P. John, a 21-year-old novice of the Basilian Sisters in Thiruvalla, Kerala, was found in a well at the convent.
As an ex-nun I presume that all these young nuns or nuns in general either commit suicide or are indirectly forced to commit suicide. Some of the factors can be behind these un-natural deaths: 1) In many cases the superiors don’t have understanding of the nuns in their convent and no dialogue, no conversation or sometimes no talk with the other nuns frustrate the others; 2) Homosex is a problem in the convent and sometimes the innocent nuns fall prey to their colleague by force. When the victim cannot open her mouth, she feels frustrated and sometimes not even the higher superiors (provincial or general) don’t take the matter seriously. Then the victims takes her own life by committing suicide; 3) Some times the nuns and priests have illegal sexual relationship and the young nuns seeing all these because frustrated and can commit suicide thinking the life useless because living in the convent and having sex with priests of the parish give them hopelessness; 4) Over burden with various kinds of works in the convent can force a nun towards committing suicide; 5) Partiality towards some and neglecting others can force one to commit suicide.
Therefore, if an investigation committee could be formed who could also study the cases after investigating each and every case, and then give recommendations to all the convents to follow them strictly, would help eradicate this issue.
Isnt it strange that the young nubile nuns are either committing suicide, being murdered or falling into wells???? All wells in Kerala MUST BE closed and Kerala should now depend only on piped water.
The older nuns are allowed to die of old age but thr younger ones are simply grabbed off. I am more than convinced that these deaths are only from a sexual angle.
Why are the authorities not taking appropriate steps to preempt such atrocities??? Also, why are they in such a hurry to bury such victims?? I smell more than a rat!!
In our system of screening vocations we do not have professional approach. Anybody and everybody is acceptable without appropriate scrutiny. Numbers matter and not the quality. How many are really trained to detect orientation to religious life and priesthood. A well balanced emotional psychological mental and physical personalities need to be nurtured spiritually and theologically. Due to lack of trained personnel defect in candidates are not easily detected . Any suicide is the result of depression. How is it that those who suffer such depression are not detected in early stages. There is something drastically wrong within the system.
Many more innocent women will die by suicide unless severe punishment is given to the superiors for not taking preventive steps. In the present case, the provincial of the convent and the bishop of the diocese should be held responsible and they should be sent to jail for abetting suicide.
Secondly, mattersindia.com should report similar incidents happening in other parts of the country, where such incidents are not reported in the media.
The existing “catch them young and innocent” has now become infructuous. Just as with marriage, the minimum age must be increased. Freedom of choice and rightness of intention as envisaged by Vatican II is not possible at a very young age.
This is SHOCKING. We need an urgent course correction. Aspirants should be a minimum 21 years of age and class 12 pass. The CBCI CRI should issue guidelines accordingly