A Carmelite nun in Kerala says she is happy that her congregation has taken her back after she went on a hunger strike demanding her rights as a nun.Sister Teena Jose, 53, who is a lawyer of the Kerala High Court, resorted to the strike on Sept. 22 in the headquarters of the Kerala-based Congregation of Mother Carmel, to protest over how she said she had been treated.
Sister Jose was expelled last year for insubordination in a dispute over the running of a school but was reinstated in January by court order.
She alleged the congregation isolated and neglected her even after her reinstatement.
“I was denied the basic rights of a nun. I was not informed about the council election and was not allowed to cast vote,” she said.
Police hospitalized her on Sept. 30 after her condition deteriorated.
The congregation agreed to her demands on Oct. 1.
The convent and Church authorities gave declined to comment on the compromise formula, but Sister Jose told ucanews.com on Oct. 8 she was happy to be back in the congregation.
She said she resorted to the strike as “I had no other way.”
She said she believes that people wronged should fight against injustice. “My Lord gave me the strength in my fight,” she said.
Controversies have dogged Sister Jose for some time.
In 2006, she successfully fought against the Bar Council of India’s objections to nuns and priests enrolling as lawyers.
A lay organization, the Joint Christian council (JCC), demonstrated before the congregation’s headquarters against Sister Jose’s alleged ill-treatment. Its members shouted slogans against the convent and Church authorities.
Felix J Pullooden, JCC general secretary, said the nun’s strike has exposed the Church in Kerala.
“It was inhumane on the part of the Church to harass a nun who has served it for 35 years,” he said.
SIC: CTH/INDIA