The Franciscan Clarist Congregation has dismissed Sister Lucy Kalappura, one of the nuns who had participated in protests against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal.
The News Minute reported that the religious body had expelled her from its order because of her alleged “lifestyle.” Facets of this lifestyle, says the report, include driving a vehicle, writing and publishing poems, and lending her support to the protests for the nun who had accused the Roman Catholic Bishop Mulakkal of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting her.
Arrested in September 2018, Mulakkal was granted bail on October 15. He had called his bail “something like a miracle” and had returned to the Jalandhar diocese.
News Minute, in its report, quoted Sister Lucy’s letter of dismissal, issued by the Superior General of the Congregation, Ann Joseph. The quoted line reads: You “did not show the needed remorse and you failed to give a satisfactory explanation for your lifestyle in violation of the proper law of the FCC”.
Also read: ‘Bishop Franco Mulakkal Is a Symptom of the Decay of the Church’
The dismissal allegedly has the Vatican’s stamp of approval, said the report. In January, reported Indian Express, the nun had been issued a canonical warning for her lifestyle.
Sister Lucy told the news portal that she wished to fight her expulsion legally and was not going to vacate her quarters at the convent. The FCC has branches across Kerala and in several Indian states.
Not only has the nun’s rape case left a grisly list of unfavourable outcomes for those who spoke out against the accused bishop, in late July, the nun on the forefront of the agitation within the church, Sister Anupama, had alleged that efforts were on to remove evidence and shield Mulakkal in the case, reported Times of India. The case will be heard again in two days, on August 9.
Four nuns, Sister Alphy Pallasseril, Sister Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Sister Josephine Villoonnickal, and Sister Ancitta Urumbil, who had offered support for the survivor were asked to leave the Kuravilangad convent where they had been staying, News Minute had reported.
The case’s prime witness, Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, who had testified against Mulakkal, was found dead in his room in a church in Jalandhar last year, Firstpost had reported.