Nuns seek Kerala CM help to cancel transfer

Kochi, January 19

Four nuns, who took part in a protest demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to the Kerala CM, seeking his intervention to ensure that their transfer orders were not effected till the trial of the case was over.

The letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was written after four of the five nuns, who led the agitation against the bishop last year, were directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district, in compliance with a transfer order issued by their congregation last year.

The survivor nun has also written a separate letter to the CM, seeking his help in the matter. “Their aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises,” she alleged in her letter.

Their congregation — Missionaries of Jesus under the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church — has directed the nuns to join their previously assigned convents, according to the transfer orders issued between March and May 2018.

The nuns — Alphy, Anupama, Josephine and Ancitta — were served notice by the superior general of the congregation, Regina Kadamthottu, urging them to take up their assigned responsibilities as befitting members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation.

In their letter to the CM, the nuns alleged that the transfer orders were aimed at splitting them and “to sabotage the case” against Bishop Franco Mulakkal. — PTI