Nuns are ill-treated in church, reveals cardinal's book

Naveen Nair / CNN-IBN
Sat, Mar 21, 2009

Thiruvananthapuram: After a former nun dropped a bombshell by revealing in her autobiography about the sexual abuse and mental harassment nuns go through in the Catholic Church, a sitting cardinal has written a book in which he says many nuns are ill-treated.

The book titled Straight from the Heart by Varkey Vidayathil talks about how a section of the priests treat the nuns making them wash their clothes and cook food, all without any pay.

The biographer who is also the spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Council says he has penned down exactly what the cardinal has told him.

“In many of the bishop conferences he has heard such complaints coming up and even though they are rare they are surely happening. That is what he has said in the book,” says Syro-malabar church spokesperson Paul Thellekat.

Last year, a study by the Catholic Church found that 25 per cent of the nuns in Kerala were unhappy with life inside the four walls of a convent. This book Straight From The Heart confirms the result of that study.

“I would say to a great extent our nuns are not emancipated women. They are often kept under submission by the fear of revenge by priests. That's how the priests get away with whatever humiliation they heap upon them,” says Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar church, Cardinal Varkey Vidayathil.

The bishop also says in his biography that there is a lot the church and the communists can do together for the common man, an argument that has not gone down well with pastrol council which feels such comments will certainly misguide the Christian voters to the CPM's advantage in an election year.

But on the issue of nuns, even the pastoral council maintains a long silence, perhaps it is time for the church in Kerala to introspect.

With inputs of R Raghuraj

Church group criticises Cardinal's political viewMUMBAI, Maharashtra
(SAR NEWS):
March 21 2009

Bombay Catholic Sabha has expressed shock and dismay at the statement of the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, March 18, that the “Bharatiya Janata Party was a lesser evil compared to the communists”.

“While the Sabha does not hold a brief for either the BJP or the Marxists, but to compare them and what they stand for is odious, to say the least,” said a press statement released here March 20 by the Sabha president, Dolphy D’Souza.

“Religion is a personal matter and when it is mixed with politics – like what the BJP is doing currently – is leading to a divisive polity, demonising the minorities and hate-mongering, resulting in loss of innocent lives and properties,” the statement said. Cardinal Vithayathil’s statement lacks sensitivity to all those Christians who have been victims of such propaganda at Kandhamal in Orissa, Karnataka, the genocide in Gujarat and several other parts of the country, it said.

“We are also shocked that one of the leaders of the Church has chosen to speak in this fashion in the run-up to the elections. The Church all along has maintained that we need to vote on secular lines and this statement is misleading. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India must clarify its position and Cardinal Varkey should withdraw his statement,” the Sabha statement said.

Bombay Catholic Sabha represents over 44,000 members of the Christian Community in Mumbai.