Nun writes to Vatican envoy seeking justice
Says Church overlooking her plight; lists names of people she approached with complaint
The 43-year-old nun who has raised sexual assault charges against Jalanadhar bishop Franco Mullakal, on Tuesday sent a sevenpage letter to the Vatican’s ambassador in India narrating her plight and how it was overlooked by church authorities. She said the advances of the ‘predator’ bishop had forced 20 nuns to leave the congregation in the last five years.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 43-yearold nun who has accused Franco Mulakkal, 54, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, of sexual assault in a letter to the Vatican envoy in India, Giambattista Diquattro, called Mullakal a predator, adding that the Church is overlooking her plight.
The nun had complained to the church in December before filing a police complaint in July. The bishop is yet to be arrested.
She listed names of the people she had approached with her complaint, including the Pope and the Vatican ambassador. But none of them helped or took any action against the bishop, the nun said in the seven-page letter to the Apostle Nuncio of India (the Pope’s ambassador).
The letter alleged that at least 20 nuns had been forced to leave the congregation due to Mullakal’s “sexual advances”.
The nun claimed the bishop was using political power and money to bury her case and sought the Vatican’s immediate intervention. She reiterated her charge that the Bishop had raped her 13 times between 2012 and 2014. “Though the Bishop had sexually abused me several times, I could not reveal the full story to my superior general or to her councillors. I only told them repeatedly that Bishop is taking many disciplinary actions through them just because I resisted to lie down with him. As they failed to understand the seriousness of these words, I could not tell them more than this. And I had the fear that Bishop Franco may harm me with the support of my superiors,” she wrote in the letter.
The nun said several nuns had left the church over the last five years because of the Bishop. “Bishop Franco had always an eagle’s eye on (a) few other sisters of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation. Whichever sister he felt attracted to, he tried to put them in his trap by force or taking advantage of their weaknesses,” she alleged. She gave details of how “false cases were foisted on her” and fellow nuns when they decided to speak up against him.
The nun said she sent three letters to Rome, including to Pope Francis in May 2018, but there were no replies. The nun said once church orders probe, more nuns would testify.
In Jalandhar, the Missionaries of Jesus denied the nun’s charges and accused her of indulging in character assassination. “She came out with malicious allegations when the church authorities reprimanded her for immoral activities.” the Missionaries said
In Kochi, nuns staging a sit-in protest since Saturday said they will shift their protest venue to state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. Sister Anupama, one of the protesting nuns, said the sit-in would continue until the bishop is arrested.
The nuns denied the charge that “external forces trying to discredit the church” had fuelled the agitation.
‘WON’T STEP DOWN UNTIL FOUND GUILTY’
JALANDHAR: Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal on Tuesday said he won’t step down until he is found guilty, with nuns in Kerala hitting the streets demanding action against him for allegedly raping a nun.
The Punjab Christian Movement led by president Hamid Masih has also demanded that he should step down on moral grounds.
“Let the Kerala police complete the inquiry and submit their report. If I am found guilty, they must initiate action against me. If I leave my post at this stage people will say that I have admitted my guilt,” he said talking to HT over phone.
“The trouble started in 2016 when I took up a complaint against this nun and she was found guilty,” he claimed.
The bishop had earlier claimed that a woman from Delhi alleged that the nun had an affair with her husband, which later in his investigation found it to be true.
“There are some elements in Kerala who have been misusing nuns to achieve their hidden agenda,” he said.
On a letter the nun has written to the Vatican demanding justice, Mulakkal said how the Vatican being a different nation-state intervene in police investigations. “I have full faith in law and I will keep cooperating with police probe,” he said.
Let the Kerala police complete the inquiry and submit their report. If I am found guilty, they must initiate action against me. If I leave my post at this stage, people will say that I have admitted my guilt. FRANCO MULAKKAL, bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar