Feminism in India blog
January 28, 2019
By Alice Abraham
Life has not been easy for the five nuns from Kerala who had protested against the inaction of the Church and police authorities in the aftermath of rape allegations against Bishop Franco Mullackal. The Missionaries of Jesus had asked the four nuns, Sister Anupama, Sr. Alphy, Sr. Josephine, and Sr. Ancitta to comply with a transfer order which was issued earlier and to move out of the Kottayam mission where they were residing to different places. Sr. Neena Rose who was staying with the survivor nun has now been issued transfer order and is asked to report to the Superior General of Jalandhar on January 26th,. All of them have refused to comply with the order and is staying together with the survivor.
In September, the five nuns from the Missionaries of Jesus mission had staged an indefinite hunger strike near the Kerala High Court premises in Kochi for weeks under the banner ‘Save our Sisters’. They demanded the arrest of Bishop Mullackal who is accused by the nun from the same missionary several times between 2014 and 2016. The protest was called off only after the arrest of the Bishop and his removal from his post as Bishop of the Jalandhar diocese in Punjab. He was arrested and was in jail for three weeks until he got bail.
These protests had begun a movement in the Catholic church history which have been silencing many sexual harassment cases all over the world. However, the situation of the nuns and the priests who participated in the protests are getting worse day by day as they are facing pressure and mental harassment from the church authorities.
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