By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Dec 11, 2024: The diocese of Eluru in southern India has launched an investigation after a trainee nun is accused of killing her newborn child after allegedly being impregnated by a Capuchin seminarian.
“The diocese has asked the child abuse prevention committee to make a report on the matter and submit the report to the bishop in a day or two,” Father Bala P, the vicar general, told Matters India on December 11.
He also said the police have arrested the seminarian, a deacon, and kept him in custody for questioning.
Father Bala said the girl and the seminarian come from the same village and are distantly related.
The matter came to light on December 8 when a man in Eluru alerted the police saying that he had seen someone throwing a body from a Catholic hostel near his house.
The police and the Women Development and Child Welfare Department officials recovered the blood-stained body of the infant outside St Joseph Convent Hostel, managed by the Religious Teachers of St. Lucy Filippini, a 332-year-old Italian congregation.
Eluru’s 2-Town Circle Inspector Ramana and his team found the girl in the hostel and rushed her to Sarvajana Hospital as she was in poor health after delivering the child secretly.
The police also sent the infant’s body to the hospital morgue for further examination, and deployed forensic teams to collect evidence from the scene.
The Hindu newspaper quoting an official reported: “The minor girl gave birth to a female baby in the toilet, took bath, cleaned the bathroom and reportedly threw the baby from the terrace of the hostel building.”
But the police said the girl, who had turned 18 in July, was a second-year intermediate student from Nandyal, some 390 km southwest of Eluru. She has been a resident of the hostel for the past two years.
Eluru Deputy Superintendent of Police D. Sravan Kumar told reporters that they had received a call around 7 am on December 8. The infant’s body was found in the compound of a house adjacent to the hostel.
He said the police have registered a case and started an investigation.
Meanwhile many have questioned the inability of the hostel authorities to detect the girl’s pregnancy.
The editor Goa Chronicle, a website, says the incident has raised critical questions about the supervision and accountability of institutions managed by the Church.
According to him, the hostel authorities’ failure to notice the girl’s pregnancy highlighted glaring gaps in monitoring and care. “Why were her physical and emotional changes overlooked by staff and administrators? How did such a significant development go unnoticed in a tightly knit community?” he asked
Convent hostels, he adds, are designed to be “sanctuaries of safety and moral guidance” and such organizations are expected to “maintain rigorous oversight over their wards, many of whom are adolescents far from their families.”
“However, the incident has cast a shadow over the hostel’s ability to safeguard its residents, particularly those who are vulnerable and in need of support,” he says.
The editor finds a disconnect between what such institutions preach and practice.
He wants the incident to serve as a wake-up call for institutions like St. Joseph Convent Hostel.
Beyond addressing this specific case, the Diocese of Eluru and other similar organizations must undertake comprehensive reviews of their policies and practices to prevent such tragedies in the future, he suggested.
transformation can be made during jubilee year 2025 when all dignitaries of church will gather they add this is one of the agendas.
it is really a shameful act. will hit the church very badly before these hypocrates.
Matters India published my article with the headline: “Formation needs transformation” on October 30, 2024. It is my strong view that FORMATION OF PRIESTS AND NUNS NEEDS A THOROUGH OVERHAULING. If the Catholic hierarchy does not take serious steps, then, many more unwanted incidents will occur in formation houses. Take this as a WARNING.
While I certainly don’t condone wat has happened….
Remember… in the forest
The one falling tree .. makes more noise than the million growing silently.
Don’t need to generalize condemnation.
We are human..
mistakes are real.. even big, serious and sad one like this!!
Let’s keep praying for each clergy and religious…the Horns attack… is always the sharpest on them.
We pray especially for the young girl… the trauma she has been through.
It is high time those who care for the Church and the faith – clergy, religious, and laity, hold the Church accountable for cases such as these. The Church, our congregations and institutions may have wonderful policies and so called redressal mechanisms / agencies but unless they are known about, easily accessible and functioning transparently, they are of no use.
It is deeply disturbing to even comprehend what the young girl went through before doing what she did. At the conclusion of the 16 days activism to end violence against women, I am concerned about the lonely battle women in families, convents, wherever, face when they are in situations such as these. What support and compassion do we extend to them? Do we only respond ‘morally’ or with misguided intentions of ‘protecting the Church’ …
What is Church? Is it a structure or is it the body of Christ visible in the interconnected lives of the faithful who profess to hold its teachings and live by it?
Can we honestly profess to belong to the ‘Church’, speak about pro-life on one side and stay silent to the abuse and violence against life in homes and in situations such as the above.
A study some years ago titled ” It’s High Time” drew attention to situations like the above which need to be addressed….
Can we continue to stay blind and deaf and dumb in the face of what is happening in our Church communities, institutions and homes or can we hear the “cries” of God’s people and respond. In a few weeks we will celebrate Christmas… what are we celebrating if we cannot make the divine presence incarnate in ourselves in our world of today?
“The diocese has asked the child abuse prevention committee to make a report on the matter and submit the report to the bishop in a day or two.”
The bishop himself is the main culprit along with the provincials of the convent and the Capuchins. They should be sent to jail even before any action is taken against the girl who became pregnant and the boy who impregnated her.
Seminaries and convents have become mousetraps to entice innocent boys and girls from poor families in search of education and decent life.