Former nun tells of sex and suffering inside Indian convent

Catholic Church stung by autobiography recounting harassment and abuse

Taken from The Independent, UK, 20 February 2009
By Andrew Buncombe


A former nun's tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala.

In Amen – an autobiography of a nun, Sister Jesme says when she became a nun she discovered priests were forcing novices to have sex with them. There were also secret homosexual relationships among the nuns and at one point she was forced into such a relationship by another nun who told her she preferred this kind of arrangement as it ruled out the possibility of pregnancy.




"I did not want to make this book controversial. I want to express my feelings and to explain what happened to me... I want people to know how I have suffered," she told The Independent last night, speaking from the town of Kozhikode. "People say that everything is OK, but I was in the convent and I want them to know what goes on. I have concerns for others."

Sister Jesme, who quit last year as the principal of a Catholic college in Thrissur, alleges senior nuns tried to have her committed to a mental institution after she spoke out against them.

In her book, she says that while travelling through Bangalore, she was once directed to stay with a purportedly pious priest who took her to a garden "and showed me several pairs cuddling behind trees. He also gave me a sermon on the necessity of physical love and described the illicit affairs that certain bishops and priests had". The priest took her to his home, stripped off his clothes and ordered her to do the same.

She also alleges that while senior staff turned a blind eye to the actions of more experienced nuns, novices were strongly punished, even for minor transgressions. She was not allowed to go home after she learnt her father had died. "I was able to see [the body of] my father barely 15 minutes before the funeral," she writes. "The [response] of the superiors was that the then senior sisters were not even lucky enough to see the bodies of their parents."

When she resigned as a college principal, she claimed convents had become "houses of torture", saying: "The mental torture was unbearable. When I questioned the church's stand on self-financing colleges and certain other issues, they accused me of having mental problems. They have even sent me to a psychiatrist. There are many nuns undergoing ill-treatment from the order, but they are afraid of challenging it. The church is a formidable fortress."

The allegations are not the only controversy to rock the Catholic Church in Kerala. Last summer, a 23-year-old novice committed suicide and left a note saying she had been harassed by her Mother Superior. Reports suggest there have been a number of similar suicides. And in November, police in Kerala arrested two priests and a nun in connection with the killing of Sister Abhaya in a notorious 1992 murder.

Last night, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Dr Paul Thelakkat, dismissed Sister Jesme's allegations as a "book of trivialities". "It's her experiences, but these are things that might creep into a society of communal living," he said. Asked if the church would be shocked by the allegations, he replied: "Absolutely not. The church knows about these things."

Gay Evangelist 'Cured'

Taken from The Age, Australia, Feb 08 2007
By REUTERS

After undergoing three weeks of therapy, the disgraced American evangelist Ted Haggard has told followers he is convinced he is not gay.

Haggard, former senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church, was a vocal opponent of gay marriage who fell from grace last November in a high-profile gay sex scandal.

In an email distributed to his parishioners and posted on the New Life website today, Haggard said: "Jesus is starting to put me back together."

Haggard also said he and his wife would leave Colorado and study psychology.

Referring to Haggard's treatment, the Reverend Tim Ralph, a member of the New Life oversight board, told the Denver Post newspaper: "He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

The newspaper also reported that he had told the church oversight board that his homosexual activities had been limited to the male prostitute who went public with their liaisons.

Haggard resigned as president of the influential National Association of Evangelicals after the male escort made his accusation.

He also left his senior pastor position and said he was guilty of unspecified "sexual immorality".

Members of the oversight board and officials from New Life Church could not be immediately reached for comment.

In his email, Haggard discussed his recent therapy and outlined his future plans.

"As part of New Life's efforts to help me, they sent Gayle and me to Phoenix for a three-week psychological intensive that gave us three years worth of analysis and treatment," he said.

"Gayle and I have decided to move from Colorado Springs to go back to school. ... We are both planning on getting our master's in psychology so we can work together serving others the rest of our lives."

With his chiselled features, wide smile and five children, Haggard had been a poster boy for social conservative causes and the evangelical movement before the scandal.

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While Shaggard tries to re-start his career, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said it was removing from the clergy a gay minister who announced he has a partner. The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective Aug. 15, according to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee. Schmeling, who was open about his sexuality when he took the job, announced last year he had found a lifelong companion. Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign, but Schmeling refused.