After running a smear campaign against the rape victim Nun, the Missionaries of Jesus has once again stood behind the rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal. The Congregation had conducted an inquiry and has now released a “preliminary inquiry report” claiming the Bishop to be innocent.
Jalandhar Bishop didn’t stay in Kuravilangad convent on 5.5.14 as claimed in rape complaint by the nun. On 23.5.15, they can be seen at a function with the Bishop in a photo. All this points that there was no rape: Missionaries of Jesus Inquiry Commission’s findings. #Kerala https://t.co/eNxXtyEJxv
— ANI (@ANI) September 14, 2018
According to the preliminary report, the Congregation has rejected all the allegations against the Bishop saying the allegations against the bishop are baseless and even indulged in victim shaming. The Missionaries of Jesus went a step ahead and released the picture of the rape victim today which shows the nun with the Bishop captured on May 23, 2015, a day after the alleged rape took place. The congregation has said that going by the photograph, nun sitting next to the Bishop was a proof that she was not sexually assaulted the previous day. It further accused the nun and other people of conspiring against the Bishop. It said the nuns have been influenced by the thoughts of rationalists.
“Victim’s friend was handling the visitors’ register in the convent, they must have tampered with this. The victim had forcefully taken control of the CCTV system from Mother Superior,” the Missionaries of Jesus said in the statement.
The nuns for the first time in the recent history had defied their vows to protest against Bishop Franco Mulakkal and Church atrocities against their attempts to hush up the incident. The Congregation had reacted to this protest and had tried to add insult to injury by calling the rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal “an innocent soul” and said he cannot be crucified “based on such allegations”.
Shockingly, another MLA from Kerala PC George had referred the 44-year old rape victim as a “prostitute”, which had caused a huge uproar recently. The incident came to light when a nun from Kerala accused a Bishop from Jalandhar of raping her. The accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, is said to have raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and exploited her sexually on several other occasions. The nun has registered a complaint in June this year. The nun has further alleged that she had approached the Syro-Malabar Church authorities over the matter but no action was taken against the Bishop which made her approach the Police.
