‘Neither church nor government or police gave us justice’

KOCHI: For the first time in the Catholic church’s history in Kerala, a group of nuns defied their vows to come out in protest against church authorities and police for attempts to hush up the alleged rape of a nun by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar . They sat at Vanchi Square on Saturday for over three hours near the inspector general’s office in Kochi , demanding Mulakkal’s immediate arrest.The protests, organised by the Joint Christian Council — an apex body of independent Christian organisations — included seven nuns, five of them from Missionaries of Jesus congregation to which the rape survivor belongs. Mulakkal, who is from Thrissur, had allegedly abused the nun several times between 2014 and 2016 at St Francis Mission Home and Convent in Kuravilangad, near Kottayam , where she is based.The bishop and the nun had worked together at one point in the Jalandhar diocese, which comes under the Latin Catholic church.The rape survivor had first filed a police complaint on June 27. “The church has not given us justice. Neither have police or the government. We will fight. It was the church which forced us onto the streets,” said Sr Anupama MJ, one of the protesters. The nuns also revealed they are facing threats and that church authorities initially tried to bribe them into silence.“The church can’t remain silent. We stand together with the nuns till justice is served,” said Indulekha Joseph, an activist with the Kerala Christian Reformation Movement.Sr Anupama spoke of the attempts to hush up the case. “When we reported it to the nuncio they didn’t even send an acknowledgement. We also reported directly to Rome but even they haven’t responded,” she told TOI.Responding to Saturday’s development, Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council spokesperson Father Varghese Vallikkatt said, “If there is any truth in the allegations, there are enough forums within the church to raise complaints.”