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‘What’s the use of blind obedience?’
Updated On: 24 July, 2022 08:00 AM IST | Mumbai | Jane Borges
Sister Lucy Kalapura, whose just-released memoir turns the spotlight on the Catholic church that sidelined her for supporting a rape survivor, says she won’t be silenced
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Sister Lucy Kalapura was dismissed from the religious order, Franciscan Clarist Congregation, in 2019, after she participated in a protest organised by nuns in Kochi against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who was accused of raping a nun. The Vatican, last year, upheld the dismissal, with the Apostolica Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, rejecting her appeal
When translator Nandakumar K was first given the Malayalam text of Sister Lucy Kalapura’s memoir, he decided against reading it. “I felt that if I read the entire book, my translation of it would be coloured by my pre-knowledge of how the narrative unfolds. I wanted the reader to have the same experience as they would, if they were to read it for the first time,” he tells mid-day over a video call. Looking back, Nandakumar thinks it was a good decision. As he read and translated page after page, he remembers feeling shocked and outraged. He didn’t want his views to mire the translation. But, in the process, he also discovered a rare tale of inimitable heroism—one woman taking on the might of the church.
In The Name of the Lord: A Nun’s Tell All (HarperCollins India), originally published as Karthavinte Namathil, recounts the life of a Catholic nun, and no ordinary one at that. Sister Lucy who belongs to the religious order Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Wayanad’s Dwaraka, Mananthavady, first drew national attention in 2019, when she participated in a protest organised by nuns in Kochi against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, accused of raping a nun. While it eventually led to the arrest of Mulakkal—he was acquitted of all the charges in January this year—Sister Lucy was dismissed from the order a few months later for disobedience. The Vatican, last year, upheld the dismissal, with the Apostolica Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, rejecting her appeal. “I have not given up,” says Sister Lucy, who joins Nandakumar in the interview. “The fight is still on in the court...”
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