Kochi: The ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’ (SoS Action Council), spearheading the agitation in support of the nuns demanding the arrest of bishop Franco Mulakkal, has decided to go ahead with the protest at the High Court Junction here despite the bishop’s decision to hand over charge to a priest in the Jalandhar diocese.
Fr. Augustine Vattoly, convener of the council, told reporters here on Saturday that the nuns had launched the protest demanding the arrest of the bishop, who is facing charges of raping a nun multiple times, and that the protest will continue till he is arrested by the law enforcement agencies. The decision to hand over charge to another person is an internal matter of the diocese concerned and that need not be mixed with the demand for the arrest of the accused, he said.
The nuns staging the public protest for the eighth day also said that they will not withdraw the struggle till the police arrest the guilty. The decision to hand over charge to another person is only a technical matter, they said.
The protest witnessed a slew of priests joining it in solidarity with the demand. Addressing the meeting, Fr. Paul Thelakatt, editor of Sathyadeepam, a journal of the Catholic Church, said that as a priest it was his duty to declare solidarity with the victim.
“The Church teaches to wipe away the tears of those crying and I am here with that in mind,” he said. The priests who came to declare their solidarity have also criticised the attempt to project the protest as an anti-Church activity. The protest is against the criminality of a person and the same cannot be construed as an act against the Church, they said.
Nearly 20 priests belonging to various Christian denominations came to the venue for declaring their support.
The agitation is set to intensify further with a ‘Kerala in Ernakulam’ campaign scheduled on Sunday. Hundreds of persons from all over the state are expected to converge at the venue. The SoS Action Council has called upon people from all over the state to reach the venue at 11 a.m. for the day-long protest.
