global I REPORTS


The Nun’s Story


A Catholic sister’s report leads to the first-ever case of an Indian bishop being charged with rape and sexual assault


O 14 | SPRING 2022


N SEPT. 8, 2018, FIVE NUNS FROM THE MISSIONARIES OF JESUS, BASED IN Kuravilangad in the southern Indian state of Kerala, stepped out of their cloistered life to stage a sit-in in support of a sister nun. Their actions led to the first-ever case of an Indian Roman Catholic bishop being charged in court. The trial that followed revealed deep fault lines in the Catholic hierarchy. When a nun believed to be in her 40s reported to the police that she had been raped and


sexually assaulted 13 times between 2014 and 2016 by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Ro- man Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, she was doing the unthinkable: taking on one of the most powerful churchmen in India. Though based in northern Jalandhar, the bishop trav- eled often to Kerala, where many congregations were under his jurisdiction. Kerala itself boasts the highest literacy rate in the country, with progressive schooling and other gender- sensitive programs. The nun’s complaint, and her sisters’ sit-in, resulted in the bishop being brought to


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AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES; BIPLOV BHUYAN/HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES; PRATHAM GOKHALE/ GETTY IMAGES


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