'Ex-nun' writes about convent life and escape

ANANTHAKRISHNAN G.

Mary Chandy outside her makeshift Wayanad home

Wayanad, May 2: An hour's drive through the treacherous Thamarasseri pass in Kerala's north is Pulpally where every Christmas Mary Chandy and her orphans wait for Santa to bring them blessings and gifts. But the carol teams apparently walk past, refusing to enter the orphanage gate.

The local diocese of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church has restrained its flock from dealing with the "former nun" who claims to have "fled" her convent more than a decade ago, disgusted with what she refers to as "sexual anarchy" among the clergy.

But Sister Mary Chandy, 68, has now come up with a book purportedly drawn on her own life in the convent, which threatens to embarrass the Church. The book,Best wishes, Graceful Lady, is due for release tomorrow.

The Church denies she was ever a nun. "What we are given to understand is that she was never a professed nun. She was only a candidate and was employed in the convent as kitchen helper for a brief period," said Joseph, secretary to the Bishop of the Mananthavady diocese in the tribal district.

"In 2004, she arrived in the limits of the diocese and started living with a few children. Her institution did not fulfil necessary conditions and so a notice was issued in the diocese bulletin that it did not have the recognition of the Church," he said.

Officials at the convent, Daughters of Presentation of Mary in the Temple, at Chevayoor in Kozhikode district, too denied she was a nun there.

Chandy says she isn't surprised. "They want to disown me as they are afraid of the truth," she says, pointing out passages in her book that narrate how she defended herself from the sexual advances of a priest, how she escaped the convent and the attempt by a fellow nun to silence her baby born out of an alleged affair with a clergyman.

Chandy's book comes three years after former nun Sister Jesmi's tell-all autobiographyAmen, Autobiography of a Nun.

The attempted assault, writes Chandy, took place soon after she had donned the white robe. "It was the duty of the Sisters to welcome the priests who came calling on official work. Once it was my turn, but I was not confident about my cooking. When I went to give the Father breakfast, he locked the door before sitting down. This made me more uncomfortable. The priest then stood up and caught my hands. But I broke free and ran around the table with him chasing me. Suddenly... I grabbed a wooden stool and hit him on the head. There was blood all over. Other inmates scolded me and took him to the hospital claiming he had tripped...."

Another chapter refers to her escape. "After 41 years in the Convent, I decided that enough was enough. One day I told the Mother Superior that I wanted a saree. She bought me the same and I put it on and walked out of the convent quietly, leaving my robe before the Cross. That night I took shelter in a neighbour's house. Knowing a search was on for me, I borrowed a shirt and trouser from the house and fled the scene the next morning dressed up as a man."

The attempt to kill the newborn occurred at a convent in Wayanad in 1998 after she had left her Order, claims Chandy. "I was visiting the convent to see two children who were related to my family. Once there, I was talking to a nun when we heard the cry of a newborn nearby… I followed the sound and discovered that it came from a toilet attached to a room. There were two more Sisters with me and we broke open the door. There was blood all over the floor and the nun who had just delivered was trying to push the newborn's head into the dirty water of a closet in a bid to silence it. If we were late by a minute, the baby would not have survived. After coming to know of her pregnancy, the nun wanted to marry the priest who was responsible for it and lead a family life. But he refused to accept her."

Social activist Jose Pazhookkaaran, who assisted her with the book, says: "I met her by chance in the course of my social work. But then I tried to verify what she said and found no reason to disbelieve. There are too many coincidences in the story and I don't think it's possible to make up all that."

Sister Jesmi said she was happy one more person had attested what she was saying all along.