JALANDHAR: Franco Mulakkal, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, who has been accused of raping a nun, has claimed that he is the true sufferer in all the sordid episode. Speaking completely to TOI on Saturday, he alleged that he were falsely implicated in the rape case because he had ordered a discreet investigation into the nun’s alleged affair with the husband of one among her personal cousins. Mulakkal additionally identified several discrepancies in the ‘proof’ in opposition to him.
Asked if he was taking into account stepping down as bishop at least till the investigation is done, he stated he was “under obedience of the Pope”. “I don’t act on my own,” he stated. “Moreover, my sense of right and wrong is obvious.” He added that he was now combating for making sure that a awesome in the church hierarchy is given protection in opposition to false allegations. Asked if there was need to bring reform into the church, like permitting monks to marry, he stated that five monks of the Malankara Orthodox Church in Kerala had been going through severe sexual abuse allegations regardless of being married. “It does not matter,” he stated. “I'd recommend the current observe of the Catholic church.”
The nun who accused Mulakkal of rape was posted at Mission of Jesus Sisters (MSJ) in Jalandhar in 2016 when her personal cousin approached the awesome general of the venture in November that yr. She alleged that the nun was having an affair with her husband and destroying her family. “Superior general Sister Regina came to me for session. I advised her to apply process,” the bishop claimed. “Had I not asked her to analyze the criticism, it will have amounted to a cover-up and the complainant will have put us in the dock.”
Sister Regina advised TOI that she received the criticism on November 10, 2016. “We shaped a committee of 4 sisters who even went to Kerala to query the nun but she never cooperated,” she stated. “Her Delhi-based cousin alleged that she was in a dating with her husband.”
The bishop admitted that he stayed on the Kuravilangad convent in Kerala the place the nun has claimed that she was raped. But he stated there was not anything strange about it as the venture house was intended for fathers from the Diocese of Jalandhar and a room were specially marked for him.
‘Would a sufferer pass with her rapist?’
My predecessors, Symphorian Keeprath and Anil Couto, additionally stayed in the same room whenever they visited Kerala. In truth, the property was bought by Diocese of Jalandhar to provide a spot for monks from Kerala going again home,” the bishop stated. “There are entries in the logbook that I stayed there 13 times and the quantity has been cited in her criticism.”
Mulakkal identified that while the nun alleged sexual abuse from 2014 to 2016, she had accompanied him to several religious purposes all the way through the same duration. “Would a sufferer pass round with her rapist or pass to the latter’s home? She visited my house when a jubilee function was held in Kerala in 2015 after which additionally when my mom kicked the bucket in November 2015,” stated Mulakkal, who become a clergyman in 1990.
“We have a system of transfers,” Mulakkal stated. “If she was a sufferer, she will have asked for a switch from a spot the place she was struggling but she didn't ask for one ever. I problem her to bring out any proof that she sought switch out of the convent to a few different position. Rather, it was I who was shifting her, which she was resisting.”
Asked if he was taking into account stepping down as bishop at least till the investigation is done, he stated he was “under obedience of the Pope”. “I don’t act on my own,” he stated. “Moreover, my sense of right and wrong is obvious.” He added that he was now combating for making sure that a awesome in the church hierarchy is given protection in opposition to false allegations. Asked if there was need to bring reform into the church, like permitting monks to marry, he stated that five monks of the Malankara Orthodox Church in Kerala had been going through severe sexual abuse allegations regardless of being married. “It does not matter,” he stated. “I'd recommend the current observe of the Catholic church.”
The nun who accused Mulakkal of rape was posted at Mission of Jesus Sisters (MSJ) in Jalandhar in 2016 when her personal cousin approached the awesome general of the venture in November that yr. She alleged that the nun was having an affair with her husband and destroying her family. “Superior general Sister Regina came to me for session. I advised her to apply process,” the bishop claimed. “Had I not asked her to analyze the criticism, it will have amounted to a cover-up and the complainant will have put us in the dock.”
Sister Regina advised TOI that she received the criticism on November 10, 2016. “We shaped a committee of 4 sisters who even went to Kerala to query the nun but she never cooperated,” she stated. “Her Delhi-based cousin alleged that she was in a dating with her husband.”
The bishop admitted that he stayed on the Kuravilangad convent in Kerala the place the nun has claimed that she was raped. But he stated there was not anything strange about it as the venture house was intended for fathers from the Diocese of Jalandhar and a room were specially marked for him.
‘Would a sufferer pass with her rapist?’
My predecessors, Symphorian Keeprath and Anil Couto, additionally stayed in the same room whenever they visited Kerala. In truth, the property was bought by Diocese of Jalandhar to provide a spot for monks from Kerala going again home,” the bishop stated. “There are entries in the logbook that I stayed there 13 times and the quantity has been cited in her criticism.”
Mulakkal identified that while the nun alleged sexual abuse from 2014 to 2016, she had accompanied him to several religious purposes all the way through the same duration. “Would a sufferer pass round with her rapist or pass to the latter’s home? She visited my house when a jubilee function was held in Kerala in 2015 after which additionally when my mom kicked the bucket in November 2015,” stated Mulakkal, who become a clergyman in 1990.
“We have a system of transfers,” Mulakkal stated. “If she was a sufferer, she will have asked for a switch from a spot the place she was struggling but she didn't ask for one ever. I problem her to bring out any proof that she sought switch out of the convent to a few different position. Rather, it was I who was shifting her, which she was resisting.”
My conscience is clear, says Jalandhar bishop
![My conscience is clear, says Jalandhar bishop]()
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July 15, 2018
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