Fear for my life at church: Kerala nun

nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An expelled Catholic nun in Kerala on Saturday said she feared for her life and accused the Franciscan Clarist Congregation of the Roman Catholic Church of making her life miserable during the Covid-19 lockdown by denying her even basic necessities, including food, at a convent.

The 55-year-old nun was expelled from the Congregation last year for “serious indiscipline.” She had accused it of victimising her for supporting an agitation in 2018 for former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mullakkal’s arrest for alleged rape.

“The convent kitchen was closed to smoke me out. Since hotels are closed at times, I go without food these days. Sometimes people who know me bring food. It is strange the church is doing a lot of charity outside but keeps one of its own tribe starving at the convent. It is an inhuman and blatant violation of rights,” she said.

The nun in February had alleged that the convent authorities were trying to evict her by depriving her of food.

The congregation denied the allegations and said the nun was flouting the convent’s discipline. “She continues to flout discipline and raises wild allegations quite often. She was expelled from the congregation but she continues to stay there as an intruder. With her presence, we find it very difficult to maintain discipline and decorum of the convent,” said Jyoti Maria, a convent provincial.

She said last week parishioners prepared a mass memorandum urging authorities to remove her from the convent.

The nun said she had worked for the congregation for 35 years and will remain at the convent. She added that a local court had stayed the convent’s move to evict her. Maria said they moved a higher court to vacate the stay.

The nun said her harassment increased after her autobiography, in which she has detailed alleged sexual abuse and assaults at convents and seminaries, was published last year.