Even as the alleged rape of a nun by the power-wielding Bishop Franco Mulakkal came into the spotlight last year, raising a hue and cry amongst one section of Christians supporting the nun’s fight for justice, the other section of the Catholic Church stubbornly refused to admit there were “demons” within the Church, thus supporting Bishop Franco’s claim of being innocent, either with a stoic silence or unstinted show of support when the Bishop was released on bail.
Even as the alleged rape of a nun by the power-wielding Bishop Franco Mulakkal came into the spotlight last year, raising a hue and cry amongst one section of Christians supporting the nun’s fight for justice, the other section of the Catholic Church stubbornly refused to admit there were “demons” within the Church, thus supporting Bishop Franco’s claim of being innocent, either with a stoic silence or unstinted show of support when the Bishop was released on bail.
But the Catholic Church will now have to either face its demons or exorcise them, with more skeletons tumbling out of the closet, courtesy an investigation carried out by the Associated Press (AP), an international news agency across India.
The investigation reveals that nuns attached to the Catholic Churches across India have long been subjected to sexual abuse by none other than the priests and bishops who are their fellow brethren and church superiors within the hallowed portals.
The AP investigation has opened up a Pandora’s Box about nuns enduring sexual abuse by those within their own church fraternity for many decades. The nuns have opened up about their sexual servility to their superiors and bemoaned how they were groped, kissed and hands squeezed by men whom they believed were appointed representatives of Jesus Christ. "Often these sexual predators develop close friendships with nuns and then later treat them as sex objects," said a nun. Nuns allege that repeated rapes have occurred and yet the Catholic hierarchy had done nothing about it.
“Even the Vatican is aware of this sexual predation by the male church hierarchy across different continents but has done little to stop it,” states the report which has taken into account real-life incidents of nuns attached to various Catholic churches which are under the Vatican. The nuns have reportedly described the various kind of sexual abuse they had to endure from the male priesthood within the church while some others recollected how they had fended off sexual advances from their church superiors.
In the AP report, nuns described in detail the sexual pressure they endured from priests, and nearly two dozen other people—nuns, former nuns and priests, and others— said they had direct knowledge of such incidents. This sexual aberration of Catholic priests who are supposed to be celibates is witnessed across Asia, Europe, South America and Africa, according to the AP report.
The reports also reveal how the sexual escapades of the Catholic church priesthood are cloaked in secrecy, with only a few victims daring to come out in the open in spite of an inherent fear of the powerful church hierarchy. Nuns coming out in the open and speaking about the misdemeanors of the male church fraternity are usually isolated and treated as outcastes of the Church.
"A case in point is the 44-year old Kerala nun who had filed a police complaint on a Bishop who had raped her 13 times over the years. But she had to face calumny launched against her, as working against the church and other nuns threw abusive words such as “You are worshipping satan,” says the AP report.
The cornerstone of the supposedly highly disciplined Catholic religious life is Celibacy for the priests, as is sexual purity among nuns. Priests are seen as living representatives of Christ, with obedience to them compulsory as another Catholic cornerstone. A complaint against a priest means leveling an accusation against someone higher in the church hierarchy. It can mean getting pulled into a tangle of malicious rumors and church politics. It means risking your reputation, and the reputation of your order.
In a country where there are roughly 18 million Catholics, the nuns fear that speaking up could tarnish the image of their church and invite criticism by Hindu hardliners. Caught at this intersection of sexual taboo, Catholic hierarchy, loneliness and political overtones, the nuns are left at the mercy of predatory priests. The “hallowed” mask of organized sexual crime within the Catholic Church portals needs to be ripped off. Now that Truth is out in the open, will it set the captives free?