Kerala: Days after transfer, nuns seek CM’s help, ask to remain in present convent

Earlier this week, the Catholic Church in Kerala transferred four nuns from its Missionaries of Jesus convent in Kuravilangad who had participated in protests against Bishop Franco Mulakkal. They were later asked to comply with the order and move out of the congregation’s premises.

Sister Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, one of the nuns who has been asked to return to Chamiyari convent in Punjab, called the transfer order an ‘attempt to split and destabilise them’. Read in Malayalam

“This is an attempt to split and destabilise us emotionally. No guarantee that people who aren’t protecting us here will give us protection at other places like Bihar or Punjab,” she was quoted as saying earlier.

Following protests from the nuns, bishops of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church on Friday decided to take measures in order to check acts of “indiscipline”. The Synod of the Church, which was attended by 55 bishops, said that a code of conduct will be introduced for nuns and priest that have been involved in agitations or were actively taking part in media discussions.

A circular issued by Church head Cardinal George Alancherry, said that all the protest breached all limits of the discipline. It also added saying that it is suspected that people involved have become ‘puppets in the hands of anti-church forces’.

Last year, Sr Alphy Pallasseril, Sr Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Sr Josephine Villoonnickal and Sr Ancitta Urumbil, held an indefinite strike near the Kerala High Court premises in Kochi, demanding the arrest of the rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar diocese.

Mulakkal was accused of raping a nun belonging to the order of Missionaries of Jesus several times between 2014 and 2016, and spent three weeks in the sub-jail at Pala before he got bail.

(Inputs from ENS)