Vatican junks expelled nun’s plea

Kochi, October 16

The Vatican has dismissed an appeal by a Kerala nun, challenging the Franciscan Clarist Congregation decision to expel her for “failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle in violation of FCC laws”. Sister Lucy Kalappura was expelled by the Congregation in August this year.

The congregation, under the Roman Catholic Church, had said the nun was issued “proper canonical warnings”, but did not show the needed remorse.

“The Vatican has dismissed her appeal,” a Church source said here without elaborating. The source said she would have one more opportunity to file an appeal.

If that was also rejected, she would have to leave the convent, the source said. In its August 5 letter to her, Ann Joseph, the head of the Aluva-based congregation, had said she was being dismissed from the congregation for failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle “in violation of the proper law of the FCC”.

The “unanimous decision” to dismiss the nun was taken at the congregation’s General Council on May 11 this year. This was approved by the congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Vatican through the Nuntiature in New Delhi.

Sister Lucy Kalappura had dismissed some 14 charges levelled against her by the congregation, saying many of them were a “deliberate attempt to paint her in bad light”. In its notices, the FCC had alleged that the nun violated its dress code in public without any permission and caused grave external scandal and harm to the Church by participating in the protest by ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ on September 20 2018 at Kochi, seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun in Kerala. — PTI

The allegations

The congregation issued a notice to Sister Lucy Kalappura in January for the “grave violations”, main being:

• Possessing a driving licence, buying a car and taking a loan for it
• Publishing a book of poems
• Spending money without the permission and knowledge of her superiors
• Taking part in a protest against rape accused former bishop of Jalandhar diocese