God’s own country, Kerala is becoming the hotbed for illicit crimes committed by god-men from the Christian community. The Communist ruled state which always try to portray itself as the most global, secular and free state has thrown up one story after another of blackmailing and sexual abuse. A week is yet to pass when five priests were accused of blackmailing and sexually abusing a woman, a complaint was put on the Orthodox Church by the husband. Another incident of sexual misconduct and rape by the bishop of the Syro-Malabar church have cropped up. This time the complainant is a nun of the church herself, the complaint has been registered at the Kuravilangad police station in Kerala. The nun is the mother superior of a convent, an important position in the hierarchy of the church. The nun has accused the bishop of raping her 13 times over a period of two years. The allegation raised by a nun against the Catholic bishop has put the Syro-Malabar church in a difficult position. The accused bishop Franco Mulakkal is the bishop in Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar.
According to the nun, the bishop had first raped her at a guesthouse in 2014 after calling her under pretext of some work related to the church. She was further blackmailed and forced to have sex with the bishop countless time. The matter had already been reported to the church authorities but their failure in punishing the accused bishop had made the woman file a formal complaint with the police. The inaction of her church had infuriated the nun who turned to the police when she had no other resort left. The nun also alleged that the church instead of acting upon her complaint had instead sided with the bishop. She had been forcefully removed from her position in the church and various charges of financial irregularities had been falsely imposed on her by the church. These actions must have been done in order to save face by the church.
The bishop in question too has lodged a complaint with the police. The bishop alleges that the nun had blackmailed him and threatened to frame him in a sexual misconduct case if he failed to meet her demands. It is not yet clear what demands were made by the nun to the bishop. But the bishop has said that he had transferred the nun from her position to another which had invited her fury. He claimed that the allegations levied by the nun were baseless.
Whatever the case might be there is no doubt that there is a power game which goes on at all times inside the churches, of Kerala in particular. Kerala has given one shocking story after another when it comes to sexual misconduct, fights over land and property and other instances. The communist government which is in power in Kerala has failed to hinder the expansion of churches and radical Islamic groups in the state. Brutal killings of RSS workers combined with chilling stories of sexual misconducts from the quarters of the church need to be stopped immediately. The Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala should take due notice of these instances and should take some command over the church so that these instances can be stopped.
