Indian police charged Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar of repeatedly raping a nun in her rural convent, the Associated Press reported.
The bishop was charged April 9 with rape, illegal confinement and intimidation, said Hari Sankar, a district police chief in the predominantly Catholic state of Kerala.
Bishop Mulakkal was arrested Sept. 21 after a 48-year-old member of the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan congregation under the prelate, complained that he raped her multiple times between 2014 and 2016 while he was visiting her convent in Kerala. The bishop, who was in charge of the congregation, denied the allegations.
The New York Times reported a statement from Save Our Sisters, a group of members of India's Roman Catholic Church, who said the filing of charges "enters the annals of history as a rarest of rare incident, when a bishop is going to face trial in a court based on the complaint of a nun who is a subordinate to him."
The New York Times reported Save Our Sisters said the charge sheet includes statements from 83 witnesses, including a cardinal, three bishops, 11 priests and 25 nuns.
The victim first wrote to church authorities in January 2017, the apostolic nuncio in India in January 2018, and then to Pope Francis May 14, seeking church action against Bishop Mulakkal. She copied prefects of the congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Bishops, and later sent reminders before going to the police.
On Sept. 24, the bishop was taken into judicial custody. The Vatican removed him from diocesan administrative duties, but he retained his title as its bishop.
The Kerala High Court granted bail Oct. 15 on condition that the bishop, based in northern Jalandhar City, should not enter Kerala state other than to report once a fortnight to investigating police.
A week later, Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, 67, considered a prime witness against the bishop, was found dead, with his family suspecting foul play.
The nun's case led to an outcry from women religious, with more reporting cases of abuse.
In November, the International Union of Superiors General called on women religious who have suffered abuse to come forward and report it to their congregations and church and state authorities.
[Read more: Nuns in India have faced abuse for decades]
"If the UISG receives a report of abuse, we will be a listening presence and help the person to have the courage to bring the complaint to the appropriate organizations," it added in a statement published on its website Nov. 23.
Global Sisters Report talked to five Missionaries of Jesus in India who complained of church repression for their support of their former superior general, who made the accusations.
"The Catholic Church leadership has been treating us as outcasts after we went public against Bishop Franco Mulakkal (of Jalandhar). Even the Vatican has not bothered to acknowledge our complaints," Sister Anupama Kelamangalathuveli, spokeswoman for five Missionaries of Jesus nuns, told Global Sisters Report earlier this year.
The five sisters were living with the victim in a convent in Kerala state, refusing orders to return to their own communities while the case was ongoing. Retired Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Gracias of Mumbai, Jalandhar Diocese's administrator, supported their position, but the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council criticized the nuns for stirring up enemies of the church, reported Global Sisters Report.
So will this be blamed on homosexuality also.
It appears that the Church has still learned nothing from all the public scandalous sexual abuse it has already experienced.
Sexism leads directly to the sexual abuse of children and teens and women. This is not news. If we continue patriarchy for much longer or solidify it thru optional celibacy for male priests only we will see more abuse of both women and our youth.
About twenty years ago there was a Time or Newsweek article which I remember reading stating nuns were being raped by priests in Africa. One case a nun got pregnant and the priest forcibly aborted the nuns pregnancy on an altar after she told him. I assumed back then that the church had addressed the issue since it came up in a nationally known news magazine. I guess not.
If we laity do not demand women priests, bishops and cardinals immediately then we only have ourselves to blame for the damage because we did nothing to demand change and same ordination and sacraments for men and women as a matter of basic human dignity.
Without equality there is continuous abuse as one side oppresses the other. It is time to end the hatred of women in our church laws, traditions and teachings. Jesus Christ does not support sexism but instead condemns all biased treatment between believers. We must demand our church do the same.