Former nun tells of sex and suffering inside Indian convent Catholic Church stung by autobiography recounting harassment and abuse By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi Friday, 20 February 2009 ALAMY Kerala nuns at prayer. An ex-nun who wrote about life in a Kerala convent says she fears for those still living there A former nun's tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala. In Amen – an autobiography of a nun, Sister Jesme says when she became a nun she discovered priests were forcing novices to have sex with them. There were also secret homosexual relationships among the nuns and at one point she was forced into such a relationship by another nun who told her she preferred this kind of arrangement as it ruled out the possibility of pregnancy. "I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me... I want people to know how I have suffered," she told The Independent last night, speaking from the town of Kozhikode. "People say that everything is OK, but I was in the convent and I want them to know what goes on. I have concerns for others." Sister Jesme, who quit last year as the principal of a Catholic college in Thrissur, alleges senior nuns tried to have her committed to a mental institution after she spoke out against them. In her book, she says that while travelling through Bangalore, she was once directed to stay with a purportedly pious priest who took her to a garden "and showed me several pairs cuddling behind trees. He also gave me a sermon on the necessity of physical love and described the illicit affairs that certain bishops and priests had". The priest took her to his home, stripped off his clothes and ordered her to do the same. She also alleges that while senior staff turned a blind eye to the actions of more experienced nuns, novices were strongly punished, even for minor transgressions. She was not allowed to go home after she learnt her father had died. "I was able to see [the body of] my father barely 15 minutes before the funeral," she writes. "The [response] of the superiors was that the then senior sisters were not even lucky enough to see the bodies of their parents." When she resigned as a college principal, she claimed convents had become "houses of torture", saying: "The mental torture was unbearable. When I questioned the church's stand on self-financing colleges and certain other issues, they accused me of having mental problems. They have even sent me to a psychiatrist. There are many nuns undergoing ill-treatment from the order, but they are afraid of challenging it. The church is a formidable fortress." The allegations are not the only controversy to rock the Catholic Church in Kerala. Last summer, a 23-year-old novice committed suicide and left a note saying she had been harassed by her Mother Superior. Reports suggest there have been a number of similar suicides. And in November, police in Kerala arrested two priests and a nun in connection with the killing of Sister Abhaya in a notorious 1992 murder. Last night, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Dr Paul Thelakkat, dismissed Sister Jesme's allegations as a "book of trivialities". "It's her experiences, but these are things that might creep into a society of communal living," he said. Asked if the church would be shocked by the allegations, he replied: "Absolutely not. The church knows about these things." Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-suffering-inside-indian-convent-1627077.html
This is nothing new. Criminal sexual and other misbehavior by and within the catholic church has been going on for years. Example (you can download this book): Awful Disclosures by Maria Monk 1836 ...and similar titles, that exposed the horrors of church life. Of course the catholic church has claimed that these tails were blatantly untrue, having been manufactured by political and religious adversaries in order to unfairly malign their sect while gaining public favor for the protestant organizations. But with contemporary corroboration of the rampant sexual predatory behavior within that organization, one seriously has to wonder. The adage of, 'Where's there's smoke, there's fire' certainly comes to mind. As a sidebar, I personally have also stated that insofar as the catholic church in the United States, that it should be prosecuted under the RICO act (Racketeering, Influence, and Corrupt Organization), which was created to combat organized crime groups like the mafia and triads. In many ways, their organization is very similar to the behavior of a crime syndicate. Like I've always stated, organized religion is a cancer upon this world and should be abolished. People should be free to worship whatever they choose. But religious organizations should be illegal. Once you put "god" into the hands of man, you're going to run into shit like David Koresh, Jim Jones, Bin Laden, or Urban the second. The only thing that organized religions does on this earth is to ensure that men die. And whilst they do that, they also ensure that women toil and serve as chattel. -shock
I am not surprised as well. Everyone still think churches or whatever are safe haven .. lol .. it's funny how the article ended with the priest acknowledging the problem but yet to take any action to prevent it from happening again .. at the very least investigate incidence rather dismiss it like that .. just plain pathetic that these people have the audacity to come forward with the press.
