Sister Lucy Refuses to Apologise After Notice from Congregation
Expelled nun Sister Lucy was issued a show-cause notice asking her to withdraw her complaint against a superior.
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Expelled nun Sister Lucy Kalapura was issued a show-cause notice by the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) on Saturday, asking her to withdraw her complaint against a local superior. The FCC has also asked her to issue an apology to her senior, reported ANI.
Sister Lucy, who was a prominent face in the protests held in September 2018 by nuns demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, had filed a complaint with the police that she was locked up in a room in the convent in which they live by the senior nun.
“They have demanded that I fully apologise and withdraw the case. That’s not going to happen. They should apologise to me for disparaging me for the way they have been torturing me from September 2018 onwards. If they accept me, I don’t have any problems. It’s not for me only. No woman must be subject to male domination,” she told The Indian Express.
ANI reported that in its notice, the church countered Sister Lucy’s claims about being locked up after supposedly checking the CCTV footage, saying that “sister superior did not lock you up in your room. She only locked the convent before she went for the Holy Mass. It is her right and duty to keep the convent safe from criminals and trespassers”.
“Any failure to give a satisfactory explanation regarding the above may invite, from the part of the FCC, legal procedures against you as envisaged by the Indian legal system, in addition to the provisions of canon law and the proper law of the FCC,” it went on to say.
Sister Lucy Kalapura was unanimously voted to be dismissed from the FCC, which is affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church in Kerala. She had received a dismissal order from the church on 5 August that stated that she had disobeyed the church authorities on disciplinary grounds.
Some of her ‘crimes’ were learning to drive, owning a car and publishing a collection of poems, and of course her protests against Franco Mulakkal.“The church accused me of going to protests, speaking on a TV channel, speaking against the church, buying a vehicle. All those things should not have been done (according to them) but I think I should have done even more,” she had told The Quint.
Just a week back, the church had written to her family to take her back home.
On 21 August 2019, the National Women’s Commission (NWC) wrote to the Kerala police chief to help her after she complained of continuing harassment by the church, reported The News Minute.
(With inputs from ANI, The Indian Express, The News Minute)
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