Sister Lucy Kalapura, who was a prominent face in the protests against rape-accused Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal, has joined a bachelors course in law. She joined Sree Narayana Law College in Ernakulam’s Poothotta in November this year. A photo of a confidently smiling Lucy in her college uniform of shirt, trousers, and waistcoat, and her hair not hidden behind the austere veil, had emerged on social media along with the news of her college admission.
Lucy was an active participant in the protests against Franco held near the Kerala High Court in 2019. She has also bravely spoken against the patriarchy ingrained in the Catholic church on many occasions. Speaking to TNM, Lucy said that she found it necessary to learn law in order to fight for justice. “I decided to learn law to help the fight for justice for the nun [survivor in the Franco Mulakkal rape case] and also to fight for other nuns who are suffering within convents. I would like to be their voice and give them courage to seek justice,” she said.
Lucy currently stays in a hostel as she was denied entry to the convent. She said that she got a warm welcome from her teachers and classmates at the college. “I feel happy that they have welcomed me and extended support. I would like to take up law as a career and will be speaking for the voiceless,” she added.
Currently aged 57, Lucy joined the convent at 17. She was a mathematics teacher and retired from service in 2021. Lucy was expelled by the Fransiscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) in August 2019 after she took part in a protest by the nuns belonging to the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation seeking the arrest of Franco. The FCC had expelled her for ‘failing’ to provide an explanation for her lifestyle, which allegedly violated church rules. Learning to drive, buying a car to meet her travel requirements, publishing a poetry collection, and supporting the rape-survivor nun were some of the charges raised by the congregation for the eviction of Lucy. The Vatican had ratified the decision.
She had dismissed the charges levelled against her by the congregation, saying that many of them were a "deliberate attempt to paint her in bad light." Earlier, she had filed a case against the decision of the congregation and had argued the case herself at the High Court after a senior advocate abruptly refused her brief. She had also refused to leave the convent even after the decision from the Vatican.