Nepal is in the news for the saddest of reasons – a political volcanic eruption led by youth disenchanted by the political system; its corruption and opaqueness. This is déjà vu for what happened in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. With three neighbours in political turmoil, can big brother India remain unscathed?
There have been similar political eruptions in the, notably the Arab Spring in Tunisia in December 2010 that spread to other Mediterranean countries like Egypt, Libya, Syria and Lebanon. Going back in time there was the Sorbonne University student uprising in France in 1968. That was also the time of the hippie revolt in the USA with its catchphrase “Make love not war”, against the Vietnam war. The Beatles were also an expression of this anti-establishment movement.
It was not directed against the political establishment alone. A co-lateral target was organised religion, primarily the Catholic Church, for its rigid sexual morality. Masturbation was a mortal sin, consigning most of the youth to the gates of hell. Even the French Revolution (1789-1799) had both the Monarchy and the Hierarchy in its cross hairs. The Monarchy was the Second Estate, while the Hierarchy was the First Estate, though possibly the secondary target. The bourgeois, the intellectual class, was the Third Estate that revolted against the previous two.
I have always been intrigued by the poem “Fire & Ice” by Robert Frost in 1920. Lakme gave this name to one of its most seductive perfumes. The question arises, can fire and ice co-exist? Will not the ice douse the fire, or the fire melt the ice? This seems to be an elementary question, depending on the quantum of ice or fire. History and geography have a different take.
Fire and Ice are co-related, feeding on each other. Go back to the Ice Ages. They were caused by Fire. We need to go back 170 million years to the Jurassic Period Ice Age that annihilated the dinosaurs. This was caused by the fire in the belly of volcanoes that erupted, disgorging millions of tons/ cubic metres of volcanic ash and aerosols like sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. This blocked solar radiation, causing the earth’s surface to freeze. Vast sheets of sea ice in turn acted as mirrors reflecting back solar radiation, instead of absorbing it. So nature proves that fire and ice are co-related.
In turn, increasing levels of carbon dioxide subsequently caused the ice to melt. Post the Industrial Revolution and consequent rising carbon dioxide levels, we are now experiencing global warming, melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels. Floods and drought across the world are further warnings of nature’s wrath; something that dumbos like Trump refuse to accept, because he is more interested in the income from the sale of fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Let’s now turn to the volcanic eruption and ice age in the spiritual realm. About a month ago I received a phone call from Nidhi Suresh, senior correspondent with The News Minute. She was doing a follow up story on the alleged Bishop Franco Mulakkal rape case that is still awaiting disposal in the Kerala High Court. She sought my assistance in providing her background material (documentation). She may have come to know that as Convenor of the Indian Catholic Forum (ICF) I had fought for justice for the victim nun(s).
After providing the documentation I did not hear from Nidhi for about a month when she sent me a link to her report. It required a paid subscription. Having contributed to the story I was peeved at being asked to pay for it. A week later an ICF colleague from Vadodra sent me a video titled “The Devil in the Mitre”. It was Nidhi’s story about Frightening Franco and the victim nun, to whom she gave the pseudonym, Sr Ruth.
The video was over 30 minutes and some of its revelations were shocking. I shared it with my contacts. Two priest friends responded, to which I shall revert later. Let us first examine the video itself.
It begins with the findings of the lower court judgement. It had not declared Franco innocent, as some have erroneously concluded. It just gave him the “benefit of the doubt” because it did not find the rape victim a sterling witness! Could the judge tell us who else could be a witness to repeated sexual encounters in a closed room? It is a travesty of justice.
What the judge failed to take cognizance of was the fiduciary relationship (dependency) between Ruth and Franco. Even repairs to their kitchen required his permission. Was Franco then extracting a quid pro quo for a kitchen sink, while sinking to the depths of moral depravity?
What the judgement clearly establishes is the repeated sexual encounters (including what are described as unnatural ones) between the two. Whether this was by force, fraud, allurement or inducement (terms frequently used in anti-Conversion laws) or by free and mutual consent remains in the realm of conjecture.
That being so, Franco had repeatedly broken his vow of celibacy, ground enough for him to be defrocked, instead of being given an honourable discharge. Another ICF colleague saw him in an ashram in Kerala. Nidhi’s video corroborates that he is conducting “charismatic inner healing” for women and others! How blind can we be?
The video further alleges that Sr Ruth and her two companions have been subjected to all kinds of harassment from the hierarchy; including transfers, to break their unity and fighting spirit. It alleges that they are living in near penury. However, my sources in Jalandhar told me that this was not correct, as Bp Agnelo Gracias, the then Apostolic Administrator of Jalandhar diocese, had a soft corner for the victim nuns.
What is reprehensible are the statements attributed to Franco. Firstly, in self-justification he states that almost all allegations of rape are false. Had there been rape the victim would have been murdered. And he did not murder Sr Ruth! If this is not the nadir of moral depravity, what is?
Another horrific statement attributed to Franco is that it is not necessary for women to exist. With AI, plastic dolls can be produced for sexual pleasure. Does he not know that sex toys existed long before the advent of AI? How depraved can this man get? Is he greater than the Creator God who created both women and men in its likeness? Was he himself not born of a woman, or is he a non-biological being like another narcissist? Franco should be in prison or an asylum, certainly not conducting “charismatic inner healing counselling”. He may just be waiting for his next “plastic doll” who will not live to tell the tale.
My priest friend in Jalandhar concurred that Franco’s views on rape and women were crass and gross. Another priest friend to whom I had forwarded the video had this to say about the man:
“I am truly ashamed of this scandal of Franco whom I knew as a seminarian and we travelled together from Calicut to Fr M’s place for his first Mass way back in1985. He was a seminarian then, but he was just an exuberant character. Later as an auxiliary in Delhi I had come to know of his tantrums from Delhi priests and also his colour as bishop of Jalandhar. I was sceptical about his dealings and way of throwing his weight around in the diocese. Whatever has happened to him is blessings in disguise for the diocese of Jalandhar. Church has always been very soft on scandals and had to face lots of setbacks everywhere” (as received).
Since I had referred to sexual rigidity and masturbation, it is in the fairness of things that I also quote current Church teachings, as found in the official Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 11th October 1992. It states: “Masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action” (CCC 2352). Nevertheless it continues: “To form an equitable judgement about the subject’s moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not reduce to a minimum, moral culpability” (Ibid).
We have heard the saying “The pen is mightier than the sword”. Franco teaches us that indeed “The Mitre is the mightiest of all”. As Nidhi says, “The Devil is in the Mitre”. Her video got more than 24000 views and 185 comments, but no refutation from Franco. So one cannot but believe that the statements attributed to Franco are true.
Political parties and organised religion, particularly the Catholic Church, need to have their ears to the ground to hear the rumblings of an impending volcanic eruption. Else they too will be heading for another Ice Age that may take ages to thaw. For “many are cold and a few are frozen” (cf Mat 22: 14).
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