Church sacks nun who protested against rape-accused Bishop Mulakkal

The Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) on Wednesday dismissed Sister Lucy Kalapurakkal from the church at Manathavady in Kerala for disobeying church authorities.

A high level committee of the FCC took the decision of Sister Kalapurakkal's dismissal on May 11 after getting a clearance from the Vatican.

Sister Kalapurakkal had last year supported the nuns' strike in the state demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who headed the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar.

A nun had filed an FIR accusing against Mulakkal of having raped her at Kerala's Kuravilangad church between 2014 and 2016. Mulakkal was arrested in September following the protest and is currently out on bail.

However, Sister Kalapurakkal became a target of the Church authorities after she joined the nuns protest against the delay in Mulakkal's arrest despite the FIR against him.

Since then she had been receiving notices from the church on flimsy charges such as airing her opinion about the bishop on TV channels, owning a car and writing a book.

Speaking to the media at her convent, Sister Kalapurakkal said that two senior nuns today asked her to sign a letter. "I told them will not sign the letter till I read it. It was after that they allowed me to read the letter, the first sentence of which said that I have been dismissed and asked to vacate the convent in 10 days," she said.

"I never did anything wrong. All I did was to lend support to the hapless nuns, who were protesting. What's the problem, if I own a car or write a book?" asked the nun.

"I will now seek legal recourse with the help of my well wishers. I don't think I am bad in any respect compared to the over 7,000 nuns in our congregation. I consider myself a very good nun," she added.