Kochi: The Vatican has dismissed an appeal by Kerala nun Sister Lucy Kalappura, challenging the Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s (FCC) decision to expel her for ‘failing to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle in violation of FCC laws’.
Sister Lucy Kalappura, who took part in a protest seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun, was expelled by the FCC in August this year.
The congregation had charged her with publishing poems, purchasing a car and taking part in a protest against the rape accused former bishop of Jalandhar diocese.
The FCC, under the Roman Catholic Church, said the nun was issued ‘proper canonical warnings’, but did not show the needed remorse.
Challenging the decision, the nun filed the appeal before the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in Vatican.
“The Vatican has dismissed her (Sister Lucy Kalappura) appeal,” a church source said here without elaborating.
The source informed that Sister Lucy Kalappura would have one more opportunity to file an appeal. If that was also rejected, she would have to leave the convent, the source said.
Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro has conveyed to the congregation the decision taken by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. “As you will see, the Congregation has rejected the Recourse presented by Sister Kalapura,” said the Archbishop.
Reacting to the decision, Sister Lucy Kalappura said it was taken without hearing her part. She asserted that she would not leave the convent as she has not done ‘anything wrong’.
In its notices, the FCC alleged that the nun violated its dress code in public without any permission and caused grave external scandal and harm to the Church by participating September 20 in the protest by ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ at Kochi, seeking the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun in Kerala.
PTI