In a shocking display of apathy, the Syro-Malabar Diocese in its calendar for the year 2021, has printed a picture of Bishop Franco Mulakkal who has been accused of sexually abusing a nun.
This featuring of rape accused Bishop in the calendar triggered immediate backlash with some followers of the church burning its copies at Kollam. Even pensioners of Kollam Catholic Church burned the calendar copies in front of the Kollam Bishop’s House.
Mulakkal is under trial at a local court in Kottayam and the printing of the calendar falls under the Syro Malabar Catholic Church which supervises the functioning of the Thrissur Archdiocese.
Syro Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal’s photo was printed last year also and there were protests, however, this year, the agitation over the photograph getting repeated was more severe after the Supreme Court, earlier this year, dismissed his petition to be cleared of the cases.
What further enraged protesters was when the Archdiocese termed Mulakkal as “a saint”, which they argued was degrading women as a 43-year-old nun had complained in 2018 that Mulakkal had raped and abused her between 2014 and 2016 at a convent in Kuruvilangad in Kottayam district.
Mulakkal not only faces the charge of rape but also charges of wrongful confinement, unnatural offence and criminal intimidation.
In August this year, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian dismissed Mulakkal’s petition to be discharged from the case of sexual abuse, saying: “You don’t have a case. We are not convinced.”
Bishop Mulakkal who heads the Jalandhar-based Missionaries of Jesus congregation, petitioned the Supreme Court saying he had been implicated in the case. But in a Chruch which is famous for burying sex abuse among clergy, few more nuns have come forward alleging sexual abuse at the hands of Bishop Mulakkal.