Disobedient nun?

adminonJanuary 11, 2022January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Stalled situation? The Vatican Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of an Indian nun against expulsion from her order. Nevertheless, it does not want to leave the monastery in the Indian state of Kerala.

Sister Lucy Kalapura said this after the Apostolic Signature's decision, according to a report by Asian Catholic news service Ucanews.

The Order of Franciscan Clarisses (FCC) had invited the nun on 5. August 2019 expelled from its ranks for disobedience and breaking their vow of poverty. Sister Kalapura's petition to the Vatican against her removal was rejected by the Congregation of Eastern Churches in October 2019. Now the Apostolic Signature, the highest church court, has ruled on the case.

Is there another reason behind it?

Kalapura sees her campaign against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, now on trial for raping a nun, as the real reason for her expulsion from the order.

Since 2018, the 54-year-old, along with several other women religious, have demonstrated against the church's long silence on the rape allegation against Mulakkal. In December 2019, Kalapura's publication of her book "In the Name of the Lord" about the sexual abuse of nuns by Catholic bishops and priests in India caused an intensification of the conflict with the official church.

Close-up of a jute bag © hans.slegers (shutterstock)

Sociologist Barbara Kuchler has called on the fashion industry to equalize clothing for women and men. Either "potato sacks for all" or tight, body-hugging clothes for all genders are needed.

"Women have the main social responsibility for looking beautiful," the Bielefeld University scholar criticized Thursday at a panel discussion on gender relations at the 37. German Protestant Church Congress in Dortmund. There needs to be either "potato sacks for all" or tight, body-hugging clothes for all sexes.

Kuchler: assault lies "partly with the woman"

At the same time, Kuchler criticized women who "very willingly" participate in a social system in which more attention is paid to appearance in women. If women put on makeup, plucked their eyebrows and wore tight clothing, they should not be surprised "if they are looked at and groping occurs," the scholar said. The fact that men perceive a miniskirt in a certain way cannot be blamed on them.

Of course, men "need to have their hands in check," Kuchler said. But he said it was "sociological window dressing" for a woman to demand to be judged only on her performance when she comes to the office all dolled up. The responsibility of assault lies "partly with the individual woman," she said.

Criticism: Potato sacks do not prevent sexual violence

Opposition came from the audience as well as from the other panelist Kristina Marlen. It's wrong to try to "desexualize public space," sex worker and physical therapist said.

Female sexuality is always censored first, criticized Marlen. A woman who says "no" and morally refuses is still easier to think about than a woman who expresses her sexual desires, he said. If everyone showed up in potato sacks, it would not prevent sexual violence, she stressed. Moreover, the only reason women were not taken seriously at work was that they were not taken seriously in general.

Controversial discussions at the DBK: During the debate about the flyer "Gender sensitive – gender read catholically" it "popped" in the German Bishops' Conference according to the words of the auxiliary bishop of Essen Ludger Schepers.

Some bishops had argued that the publication by the bishops' conference's office for women's pastoral care did not reflect the bishops' view, Schepers said Thursday in Stuttgart. Schepers is a member of the Bishops' Conference Commission for Women's Ies and is partly responsible for the paper, which was published in late 2015.

Fear among bishops over gender justice ie?

Schepers, referring to fellow bishops, spoke of fear evident in the "charged debate" over gender justice. Fear, however, is "always a bad advisor". The Catholic Church should not stay out of the social discourse on gender, said Schepers. A statement by the bishops on the ie is planned, he said.

Flyer explains "gender mainstreaming"

The leaflet explains, among other things, the relationship between key terms such as "sex" and "gender" and elaborates on "the diversity of Christian images of men and women". The church wants to "act in a gender-sensitive way at all levels," he said. The flyer explains "gender mainstreaming" as a "political strategy that aims to contribute to more equal opportunities between women and men".

Schepers spoke about "Gender Trouble" at an event of the Wurttemberg Catholic Academy. What now? Future prospects of the church". The auxiliary bishop called on his church to take note that there is more than man and woman.

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