Nun rape accused Franco Mulakkal resigns as Jalandhar Bishop; Church says not a disciplinary measure

Franco Mulakkal, accused in a nun rape case, has resigned from the Jalandhar Bishop’s post, the Vatican’s representative in India said on Thursday, reported The Indian Express.

His resignation, which came one-and-a-half years after he was acquitted by a local court in Kerala last year in the rape case, will pave the way for the appointment of a new bishop to the diocese, the Apostolic Nunciature to India — the Vatican’s mission in the country — said the release.

“Today, 1 June 2023, the Holy Father Pope Francis has accepted the resignation submitted by the Rt Rev Franco Mulakkal as Bishop of Jullundur,” the Apostolic Nunciature (top-level diplomatic mission of the Holy See) in India said in a statement.

“In this regard, the Apostolic Nunciature wishes to specify that the Holy See respects the verdict of the Additional District and Sessions Court, Kottayam, Kerala, acquitting Bishop Mulakkal from the allegations concerning him, as well as the appeal against the acquittal, which has been admitted by the Kerala High Court,” it said.

“Given the still divisive situation about the aforesaid matter in the Diocese of Jalandhar, the resignation has been requested from the Rt Rev Mulakkal not as a disciplinary measure imposed upon him, but as pro bono Ecclesiae, especially for the good of the Jalandhar diocese, which needs a new bishop,” it added.

The present status of Franco Mulakkal is Bishop Emeritus of Jalandhar, which does not imply canonical restrictions on his ministry, the Apostolic Nunciature said.

The case relates to a nun in Kerala’s Kottayam district who had complained to police in June 2018 that the bishop had repeatedly raped her.

The nun, who is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan congregation under the Jalandhar Diocese, said that the incidents happened from 2014-2016 at the congregation’s house in Kottayam.

Later, in September that year, the nun’s colleagues, with the support of members of the civil society, launched an agitation in Kochi demanding the arrest of the bishop. Mulakkal was arrested on September 21, and was jailed till October 17, making him the first Catholic bishop in India to be arrested in a rape case. The Vatican had then temporarily relieved him of his responsibilities as the bishop of Jalandhar.

He was acquitted by the Additional Sessions Court in Kottayam in January last year, and the state government’s appeal, challenging the session’s court verdict, is pending in the high court.

In the video, Mulakkal thanked those who stood with him during his difficult time.

“May our sufferings and pains and the tears I have shed before the Almighty be the reason for the renewal of the church, the strengthening of faith, my own sanctification, and the glory of God,” the bishop said.