THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Christians in Kerala have been shocked to their core as not one, but two sex scandals hit their holy pedestals in a span of a week. The first one involves a woman and her husband making allegations of sexual harassment against five priests of the Malankara Orthodox Church in Kerala. The victim's husband has raised severe questions against the priests of different dioceses. He said that his wife's confessional secret was used by the priests to blackmail her into giving sexual favours. However, they have not filed a police complaint in the regard.
Meanwhile, questions were raised on why the Church failed to make a police complaint in the same matter. When asked why the institution has not approached the police despite receiving the complaint three months ago, a highly placed church official said it is the woman who should approach the police. “What is stopping the woman from going to the police? Why should we approach the police when we have taken cognizance of the complaint and formed an internal committee to inquire? Suppose this was a case involving a minor, we would have approached the police ourselves. But in this case, the woman is an adult and she can seek the help of police if she wants to,” they said.
While the church spokesperson had earlier said that the accused priests were relieved from their duties and placed on suspension pending inquiry. A press statement was also released, saying that an unbiased and just action has already been taken against the accused priests based on the allegations. “Church will not protect them if they are found to be guilty. We will give an opportunity for the complainants to raise their points and also to the accused priests, according to natural justice,” the release read.
The survivor's husband confronted her upon seeing a hefty hotel bill in her e-mail account in February this year. “The first bill in the statement was my wife's hotel bill where she stayed in a five star hotel. When I confronted her, she said that she was being blackmailed by one of the Orthodox priests into having a sexual relationship with him. Many years ago, before we got married, a priest had sexually abused her and was blackmailing her since then. During my daughter's baptism, she was mentally upset about what was happening and so she confessed her ordeal to another priest, who threatened that he'll tell this to me. Threatening her so, he demanded sexual favours from her. He even took pictures of them together and shared those pictures with a third priest. He too later started abusing my wife. They kept circulating the videos and now around 5-8 priests are involved,” the husband said.
Nun accuses bishop of rape, 13 times
In another case, Kerala police has registered a complaint against a bishop of the Syro-Malabar church following a complaint by a nun that she was sexually assaulted by him. Kottayam superintendent of police Hari Shankar said a case was registered against the Bishop of Jalandhar, Frank Mullakkal, at the Kuravilangad police station.
A mother superior of a convent, the nun in her complaint has alleged that the bishop sexually abused after summoning her on the pretext of discussing an important issue in 2014. She said that over the next two years, she was raped 13 times by the bishop. She also said that she made a complaint to the church last year and was forced to file a police complaint after it failed to take action against the accused bishop. The nun claimed that after filing the complaint, she was removed from her official position and complaints of financial irregularities were framed against her. She has threatened to move the Pope against the accused if she finds no justice from church authorities.
The accused meanwhile, has also given a complaint saying the nun was blackmailing him and threatened to implicate him in a sexual harassment case.
