Monday evening witnessed dramatic scenes outside the St Mary’s Church in Karakkamala in Wayanad district. Sister Lucy, who was earlier banned by the church from performing any church duties, was seen smiling as over a hundred people stood around her, assuring her that she has their support.
The church authorities on Monday were forced to withdraw the disciplinary action they had taken against Sister Lucy, following the protests by the people of the parish who did not allow parish priest, Father Stephen Kottakkal, to leave the church until he withdrew the action against the nun.
This incident comes a day after the church had banned the sister from performing her religious duties because she had joined the nuns outside the Kochi High Court in their protest, demanding for the arrest of the rape-accused Jalandhar Bishop, Franco Mulakkal. Ironically, the reason given by the church as to why they took action against the sister was that the people of the parish were not happy with the sister taking part in the protests and that they did not want her to train their children about the Bible and faith.
“This is the proof that the believers of the church stand with the nuns,” an elated Sister Lucy said to media outside the St Mary’s Parish hall on Monday, following the lift of her ban, “I have been receiving a lot of support from the people of the parish, and even on social media, I heard that there are a lot of people who have voiced out their unwavering support. I cannot ask for anything more. Justice has won here.”
Around 100 people belonging to the parish barged inside the parish hall on Monday around 4.30 pm demanding an answer from the parish priest, Father Stephen Kottakkal as to why such action was taken against the sister. They also demanded that the priest tell them which parish member had asked for action to be taken against sister Lucy.
Following the protests by the people, Father Stephen called for a meeting with the parish members and church officials at the Parish hall, even as the protestors waited outside the hall for the verdict.
When the meeting began to take a little longer to come up with a decision, the protesters began to feel agitated and started shouting at the priest demanding the process was sped up. A few minutes later, he came out of the hall and announced that the ban on the sister has been lifted. Following this, were scenes of joy and jubilation outside the church. Sister Lucy who was in the adjacent building during this time, then joined the people to thank them and later spoke to the media.
“To all the believers of the church, I would like to say that their energy is the strength of the church and their love is the belief of the church,” said an overjoyed sister Lucy, “I have no hatred or anger against anyone. And I’m not scared to face any more challenges because we have a huge number of people who believe in us and support us.”