By Express News Service

KOCHI: The endurance of the five nuns, who held protests last year demanding the arrest of rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar diocese, has got recognition with the US-based National Geographic magazine publishing an article on them in its November issue.

Sisters Alphy, Nina Rose, Ancitta, Anupama and Josephine of Kuravilangad convent, Kottayam, have been featured in the magazine for their fight against injustice. The main article, ‘Around the World, women are taking charge of their future’, has published a photograph of the five nuns, all cheerful, with the title ‘Defiant Sisters, India.’

“Their superiors keep pressuring them to keep quiet and stop making trouble, but they refuse. When a nun in Kerala told church leaders multiple times that a bishop had raped her repeatedly, nothing happened, so she turned to the police. Months later, in September 2018, these fellow nuns joined a two-week protest outside the Kerala High Court. The bishop, who maintains his innocence, eventually was arrested. Instead of supporting the nuns, the church cut off the protesting nuns’ monthly allowance,” reads the brief below the picture.

The nuns had launched a 14-day protest in September last year seeking justice for the rape victim. Withstanding stiff resistance from the Church and their congregation, they managed to garner public support which led to legal action against Bishop Mulakkal.