In 2018, Sister Ranit Pallassery, former Superior General of the Missionaries of Jesus (MJ), a diocesan religious order, accused her then-bishop, Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar diocese in Punjab, northern India, of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016 during visits to her convent in Kuravilangad, a village in Kottayam district, Kerala, southern India.
A court in Kottayam district acquitted Mulakkal of all charges on January 14, 2022, ruling that the prosecution had failed to substantiate the allegations. Following the ruling noting that sexual encounters could not be considered rape, the bishop resigned from his diocese but retained his episcopal office and continued to assist at a retreat center in Kerala.
Both Pallassery and the Kerala state government appealed Mulakkal’s acquittal to the State High Court. However, the court has yet to begin hearing the case, four years after the appeal was filed.
Pallassery, 51, continues to live in the same house where the alleged crime took place, along with two other nuns who supported her. Initially, five nuns supported her and organized a public protest that culminated in Mulakkal’s arrest in September 2018. Three of them left religious life, reportedly unable to withstand the pressure of being portrayed “as anti-Church.”
Pallassery revealed her identity, for the first time since filing the complaint, in an interview on regional Malayalam television on January 10. This was considered a rare move in India, where laws typically prohibit the media from identifying survivors of rape.
In the following exclusive interview with UCA News on January 19, Pallassery explained why she decided to go public and spoke about her life and her struggle for justice, as well as what she expects from the hierarchy, including the Vatican.
UCA News: What compelled you to go public?
Pallassery: Many people believed I had given up the fight for justice after the defeat caused by the 2022 court order. I want to tell people that I haven’t given up my fight and I’m still alive.
UCA News: You could have done that without revealing your identity.
Pallassery: Yes. But I decided to end this life of hiding, this reclusive life as a criminal. I am not the criminal. I am a victim or a survivor. However, the unexpected cause is the case of a film actress in Kerala who suffered a similar fate to me, but dared to speak out publicly just days after the court acquitted the main perpetrator, who allegedly hired men to rape her, of all charges. I agree with her that hiding behind the screen is not the solution.
UCA News: Aren’t you afraid to face the public because not everyone will support you?
Pallassery: The issue isn’t who will support me or not. Why should I hide from society when the accused are roaming freely? I’m not ashamed because I haven’t committed any crime.
UCA News: What is the status of your case pending at the Kerala High Court?
Pallassery: The case has been pending before the Kerala High Court since 2022. It has not yet been brought to trial. The state government, which also appealed the acquittal, has now agreed to appoint me a prosecutor, a government lawyer, to argue my case at the High Court.
UCA News: You and the nuns who support you have been under round-the-clock police protection since 2018. How is your life protected by the police?
Pallassery: Yes, we are under police surveillance around the clock. Police officers guard our convent. When any of us want to go out, we need a police escort. We cannot go anywhere without the permission of the police and the escort. It means our movements and freedoms are restricted. However, the police don’t interfere with our daily routines in the monastery.
UCA News: You said your congregation hasn’t financially supported you for the past two years. How do you manage to meet your daily expenses?
Pallassery: Our congregation used to pay us a monthly maintenance allowance of 5,000 rupees (about $50 USD) per person. But it stopped in November 2023. Now we survive with the support of kind-hearted people, such as Sisters in Solidarity (a group of Catholic women, including a few nuns), Save Our Sisters (a group of volunteers supporting Pallassery’s struggle for justice), and our family members.
We also earn a little from our sewing and embroidery work. A vegetable farm and a small poultry farm also help us survive.
UCA News: Why did the church stop your allowance?
Pallassery: The church officially asked us to take “leave of absence” as part of a plan to remove us. (In Church law, leave of absence allows a person of faith to live outside the community without being bound by the rules and regulations of religious life for serious reasons, usually giving them private time to decide whether they should continue their religious life.) But we refused to take leave and they stopped paying us our allowance. We consider ourselves full members of the church and continue our community life.
UCA News: You didn’t complain about this to the Apostolic Administrator of Jalandhar, the patron of your diocesan congregation, or any other Church leader?
Pallassery: Yes, we informed the administrator. But he did nothing for us. He also wanted us to take leave. We wrote to the Apostolic Nuncio in India and various Vatican departments, pleading for the restoration of our benefits, but to no avail.
If the Church leaders had been willing to listen to us, this whole affair could have been resolved within the Church itself. It wouldn’t have been in the public domain at all.
UCA News: What do you mean?
Pallasery: This case came to public attention in 2018, when I was forced to explain myself to the police. This happened after a completely false complaint by the police (of Mulakkal), accusing my brother and other family members of threatening to kill him. To prevent the police from arresting and imprisoning my family members, I told the police that the complaint was retaliation for me speaking to Church leaders about this crime.
Even the night before appearing before the police, I wrote two emails to the Apostolic Nuncio in India, pleading for his intervention and explaining that I would be compelled to disclose everything to the police, but there was no response.
Before that, I had shared it with my spiritual director, a nun; my local parish priest; Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of the Diocese of Pala; Archbishop Sebastian Vadakel of the Archdiocese of Ujjain; and Cardinal George Alenchery, former leader of the Syro-Malabar Eastern Rite Church. I also wrote to several churches in Rome and to the late Pope Francis himself. None of them even bothered to acknowledge my complaints.
UCA News: People often ask why you didn’t complain immediately after the first violation and why you allowed it to happen 13 times. How do you respond?
Pallassery: I just answered that question. I approached everyone I could within the Church hierarchy, including the Vatican, during this period, to find a solution that wouldn’t damage the Church’s image. But we were met with absolute silence from the Church authorities.
I also explained this in detail in my testimony before the court.
UCA News: What kind of settlement did you request?
Pallassery: We wanted a place to live without any interference from Mulakkal, but no one helped us; instead, they pushed us into the wilderness.
UCA News: When the public protests began, five nuns supported you, but now only two do. What happened to the other three?
Pallassery: They left the church to pursue independent lives, as they could no longer bear the pressure placed upon them after supporting me.
UCA News: Some Church leaders say the nuns’ public protest was “funded by anti-Church elements” who want to tarnish the Church’s image. How do you respond to that?
Pallassery: These are all false accusations intended to divert attention from the real issue. We don’t receive money from any such group.
UCA News: Would you join another congregation that would be willing to accept you?
Pallassery: No, never. I’ve joined a congregation and will stay in it until I die. It’s not a good sign to keep changing congregations when something happens in a place you’re already a member of.
UCA News: How do you see your future?
Pallassery: There’s no choice for the future other than to live each day and die when death comes.
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