Sister Lucy Kalappura

Kerala: Sister Lucy, Who Protested Against Rape Accused Bishop, Ordered to Leave Convent

Sister Lucy Kalappura said that justice is being denied to her because she spoke the truth.

New Delhi: Sister Lucy Kalappura, who had participated in protests against rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, has now been ordered to vacate her convent. This comes after her appeals to legal forums within the Catholic Church against her dismissal on “disciplinary grounds” were rejected.

According to NDTV, the superior general of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) in Kerala in a letter said: “There is no further legal remedy available to you to within the Catholic legal system to challenge your dismissal…your right to continue as a member of the FCC is now definitively and irrevocably extinguished.”

The letter further declared, “Now onwards it is unlawful for you to continue to stay in any of the Franciscan Clarist Convents.”

The news came as PTI reported that the Vatican has rejected one more appeal by the nun against the decision of the FCC to expel her.

According to an internal church communication, Apostalica Signatura, the apex judicial authority in the Catholic Church, rejected the nun’s third appeal against dismissing her from the century-old Congregation.

“The appeal of Lucy Kalappura is rejected by Apostalica Signatura and the dismissal is confirmed,” a communication in the Congregation said.

In January 2019, Kalappura had protested against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who has been accused of raping a fellow nun between 2014 and 2016. In October 2019, she was dismissed by the FCC on the grounds that she was “violating her vows as a nun through her lifestyle”. The FCC report had then said that she had been dismissed for reasons, including 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. Her multiple appeals to the Catholic Church in India and the Vatican, challenging her dismissal, were subsequently rejected. Even after her appeals were rejected, Kalappura had said that she would not leave the convent and would let the court decide.

Also read: Sister Lucy, Who Protested Against Bishop Mulakkal, Dismissed by Congregation

Reacting to the latest order directing her to vacate the convent, she said that justice is being denied to her because she spoke the truth.

“Not one person can be denied justice like this. Justice is being denied because I spoke the truth. These people who are denying justice are the ones who teach that the truth must be said. People are with me,” she said.

The Association of Concerned Catholics (ACC) in its response to the FCC order called it a “sad day for Catholic Church in India”.

Speaking on behalf of ACC, advocate A.M. Sodder, said: “Is this what Christianity is about? The Superior General is rejoicing at Sister Lucy’s dismissal. Better if such people are not nuns forget about being Superior Generals. Secondly, why has the Vatican letter not been written in language a person understands and that too reaching after a year from its issue?”

Meanwhile, Bishop Mulakkal, who is being tried by the Kottayam court for the rape, is currently out on bail. He has been charged with rape, wrongful confinement, unnatural offence and criminal intimidation.

Vatican Dismisses Kerala Nun’s Appeal Against Order Expelling Her for ‘Lifestyle’

Sister Lucy had participated in a protest against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

Kochi: The Vatican has dismissed an appeal by a Kerala nun challenging the Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s decision to expel her for “failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle in violation of FCC laws.”

Sister Lucy Kalappura, who took part in a protest seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun, was expelled by the FCC in August this year.

The congregation had charged her with publishing poems, purchasing a car and taking part in a protest against the rape accused former bishop of Jalandhar diocese.

The FCC, under the Roman Catholic Church, said the nun was issued “proper canonical warnings”, but did not show the needed remorse.

Challenging the decision, the nun filed the appeal before the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Vatican against the FCCs decision.

“The Vatican has dismissed her appeal,” a church source said here without elaborating.

The source said she would have one more opportunity to file an appeal.

If that was also rejected, she would have to leave the convent, the source told PTI.

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro was the one to convey the decision taken by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches to the congregation.

“As you will see, the Congregation has rejected the Recourse presented by Sister Kalapura. If she will consider that the present decree is against her lawful rights, she can present a new recourse to the Supreme Tribunal of the Segnatura Apostolica within the peremptory term prescribed by the law,” the Nuncio said in his letter to the FCC.

Reacting to the decision, the nun said it was taken without hearing her part and stated that she would not leave the convent as she has not done anything wrong.

In its August 5 letter to her, Ann Joseph, the head of the Aluva based congregation, said she was being dismissed from the congregation for failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle “in violation of the proper law of the FCC.”

The “unanimous decision” to dismiss the nun was taken at the congregation’s general council on May 11 this year.

This was approved by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Vatican through the Nuntiature in New Delhi.

In its notice to the nun early in January, the congregation termed as “grave violations”, Sister Lucy possessing a driving licence, buying a car, taking a loan for it and publishing a book and spending money without the permission and knowledge of her superiors.

The nun dismissed the charges levelled against her by the congregation, saying many of them were a “deliberate attempt to paint her in bad light.”

In its notices, the FCC alleged that the nun violated its dress code in public without any permission and caused grave external scandal and harm to the Church by participating in the protest by ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ on September 20, 2018 at Kochi, seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun in Kerala.

(PTI)

Kerala Nun Appeals to Vatican Against Congregation’s Decision to Expel Her

Kochi: A Kerala nun on Saturday said she has filed an appeal before the Vatican against the Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s decision to expel her, even as the congregation tightened its stance by issuing a letter to her elderly mother to take her back home.

Sister Lucy Kalappura, who took part in a protest against former bishop of Jalandhar diocese in connection with a rape case, was expelled by the Franciscan Clarist Congregation early this month for “failing to give a satisfactory explanation” for her lifestyle “in violation of the proper law of the FCC”.

“I have filed an appeal. An email was sent to Vatican yesterday (Friday). I have also sent via post today (Saturday) to Vatican as well as their representatives in New Delhi,” the expelled nun told reporters at Wayanad RPT Wayanad.

The nun said the Congregation has sent a letter to her mother on August 10 asking her to take her daughter back to home from the convent in Karackamala (in Wayanad).

In her letter to the nun’s mother dated August 10, FCC’s Provincial Superior in Mananthavady said the nun should leave the convent if she failed to make “recourse against the decree” within 10 days from the day on which she receives the communication.

Sister Kalappura said legally the congregation could not ask her to leave the convent since she has filed the appeal challenging it’s decision.

The Congregation had accused sister Lucy Kalappura of publishing poems, purchasing a car and taking part in a protest against a rape accused former bishop of Jalandhar dioecese.

Also read: Pope Acknowledges Sexual Abuse of Nuns by Clergy

The congregation, under the Roman Catholic Church, had said the nun was issued “proper canonical warnings”, but did not show the needed remorse.

In its August 5 letter to her, head of the Aluva based congregation, Ann Joseph had said “you are hereby dismissed from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation as you failed to give a satisfactory explanation for your lifestyle in violation of the proper law of the FCC”.

The “unanimous decision” to dismiss the nun was taken at the congregation’s General Council on May 11 this year.

This was sent to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Vatican through the Nuntiature in New Delhi.

In its notice to the nun early in January, the congregation had termed Sister Lucy possessing a driving licence, buying a car, taking a loan for it and publishing a book and spending money without the permission and knowledge of her superiors as “grave violations”.

Sister Lucy had dismissed some 14 charges levelled against her by the congregation, saying many of them were a “deliberate attempt” to paint her in “bad light”.

In its notices, the congregation had alleged that the nun violated FCC’s dress code in public without any permission” and “caused grave external scandal and harm to the Church” by participating in the protest by ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ on September 20 2018 at Kochi, seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun in Kerala.