Sr Lucy to go on with fight against repression

Wayanad: Despite a series of alleged attempts to suppress the spirit of truth, Sr Lucy Kalappurackal, is stubborn.

The nun of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) has been in the limelight for about a year for her openly supporting the sisters who were fighting for the arrest of Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal.  

She told DC on Sunday that she would continue her fight against the oppression of nuns in convents across congregations.

"For the last one year I have been hunted by the church, and all the vengeful acts started when I had returned to the convent at Karakkamala, Wayanad, after participating in the agitation of sisters on September 23, last year,'' she said.

"I went there as there were none from the church to express solidarity with them. All the mother superiors of all congregations across the nations should have come together, demanding justice for them."

Sr Kalappurackal said such a move would have ended for once and for all the suppression and sexual oppression by priests over the nuns.

"It was the absence of those responsible in the venue that forced lesser people like me to come out to assert support,'' she said.

"The trend of expelling nuns who question or oppose certain things in the system after extracting the maximum of their life by the church should end," she said.

"There is an umpteen number of cases in which middle-aged nuns got expelled without giving any compensation. With their youthful days stolen, most of them are now groping in the dark to eke out a living."

If a nun wants to quit after decades of service, she demanded, the church should have a mechanism to rehabilitate them with glory, instead of pushing them into the uncertainty of the street or handing them over to their aged parents unable to manage their affairs.

"If my congregation supported my stand, it would have ended then and there. But instead, they started dancing to the tunes of those at the top, conspiring to expel me," she said.

"It was a blessing in disguise as God has given me a chance to voice my conscience. Even if I am expelled or retained within, the fight for truth and justice will go on."

The FCC congregation had given her three days to withdraw the cases against the priest who circulated defamatory footage on social media and against the nuns who had allegedly locked her up in the convent and to express an apology, which ends on Monday.

The letter had threatened her of dire consequences, including expulsion from the convent and legal measures against her if she fails to act as per the diktat.