The leadership of the Catholic Church in India could pay a heavy price for declining to take a lead and resolve the controversy over the now-arrested Bishop of Jalandhar before it erupted into street protests that have shaken to the core its cherished concepts of “discipline” and “obedience”.

The argument that the law will take its course cannot be limited to the allegations of sexual exploitation against Franco Mulakkal ~ already have some nuns in Kerala approached the chief minister accusing the police of overdoing things against Mulakkal, other nuns have threatened to continue their protest, and their backers have resorted to strong-arm measures to pressure a priest to withdraw his bid to restrain them.

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Perhaps of even greater potential is the demand from a section of the congregation in Jalandhar for a Bishop rooted in home soil ~ not an outsider from Kerala. The Vatican is, perhaps, already too over-burdened with “delinquent” clergy in the west to get bogged down over a single “rogue” priest in Kerala, but the Catholic Bishops Council of India has little valid explanation for its abdication of responsibility ~ even the temporary replacement in Jalandhar was not effected immediately.

Adding proverbial fuel to fire is a statement from the Kerala Bishops Council that uses political terms like “de-stabilsation” etc. Is this is what their cherished institution has been reduced to, thousands of Catholics across the country are plagued by that question? Attendance at church services has been steadily declining. The decline could well be accelerated, people are losing faith in the very persons to whom they turned for solace and guidance. Now it is suggested that the courts hold the key, though not every concern falls within the ambit of the law.

It would by myopic for the CBCI etc. to think that the malaise is Mulakkal-centric, or limited to a few allegedly misbehaving priests. Or things will cool after his plea for bail is adjudicated later this week. Complaints have been nurtured in the past too, but such was the authority the clergy wielded that few dared raise questions ~ the blanket rejection, ridiculing of the nun who protested offers an insight into the silence.

So too does the attempt to use muscle against those who spoke out. The bubble has now burst, the five nuns who protested on the streets got considerable support: not just for the allegations against Mulakkal ~ and it cannot be over-emphasised that they are still unproven allegations ~ but the way their convent, the Missionaries of Jesus, failed to extend the sympathy to which any woman is entitled (note the development in the US Senate). That a crowd stormed its way into a church in Kerala and pressured the priest to drop his action against a protesting nun is a pointer of things to come. If only the CBCI had recalled the adage about “a stitch in time save nine”.