Sr Lucy Kalapura An Indian Catholic nun was dismissed from her Kerala-based congregation for violation of its norms, but the 54-year-old said she plans to fight the action in court.
Sr Lucy Kalapura, a member of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, maintained that she was dismissed from the order on August 5 for publicly seeking action against a bishop accused of rape, ucanews.com reported.
The congregation’s letter to Sr Kalapura said she had been dismissed for defiance, violating the norms of the congregation and infringing on the vow of poverty.
Sr Kalapura had been given the required canonical warnings but failed to show “needed remorse” and an explanation for her lifestyle in violation of the regulations of the congregation, said the letter signed by Sr Anne Joseph, superior general.
Sr Kalapura told ucanews.com she will fight the case in the civil court. She did not elaborate.
Media reports said her superiors began to question her in September 2018 after she joined a public protest organised by women religious from another order who were seeking action against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who was accused of multiple rapes of a nun from 2014 to 2016.
Rape
The bishop in April was charged with wrongful confinement, rape of a woman incapable of giving consent, causing grievous bodily harm during rape, unnatural offense and criminal intimidation.
Church sources maintained that the dismissal was not a vindictive action for Sr Kalapura’s support for the nuns who organised the protest. They said Sr Kalapura had defiantly violated her congregation’s rules for a decade and spent her salary on personal expenses, including buying a car and publishing a book against the advice of her superiors.
I did not do anything wrong,” she said. “All I did was to lend support to the hapless nuns who were protesting. What’s the problem if I own a car or write a book? I will now seek legal recourse with the help of my well-wishers. I don’t think I am bad in any respect compared to the other 7,000 nuns in our congregation. I consider myself a very good nun,” she added.