Bishop Franco Mulakkal, a Catholic Bishop of the Syrian Malabar Church, was recently summoned by the Pope in the Vatican. The Bishop is accused of raping a nun from Kerala on multiple occasions and it was only recently that the victim came out to speak against him.
Bishop Franco wrote a letter to the Pope seeking relief from the Vatican and expressing his distrust in the Indian Judiciary system. After thoroughly analysing his case, the Pope has issued a statement in his support stating that Bishop Franco cannot be held accountable for something his body did.
While explaining his statement, the Pope said: “We cannot identify ourselves just as a physical form because life’s much more than that.”
In order to make sure these incidents don’t happen frequently, the Pope has now updated the rules to becoming a Bishop. The strict set of new rules shall contain (but not be limited to) basic guidelines for Bishops on what to say and how to deal with a situation if one gets caught after molesting or raping a nun.
