If nun was abused multiple times, it was consensual and not rape, says vicar

KOCHI: Sister Anupama, one of the sisters protesting in Kochi against Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal, strongly rebutted allegations by the vicar of the survivor’s parish that the nuns “seemed to have cheated him”.
Sr Anupama said on Tuesday that enough evidence was submitted to the probe team, responding to Fr Nichlavos Maniparambil’s claim that they were yet to produce all the evidence in their possession before police.
On Tuesday, the priest even said that if the nun’s claim of multiple sexual abuse were true, it was consensual, not rape. Fr Maniparambil’s comment goes against his stance in July that the nun had strong evidence against the bishop. “We don’t need to tell everyone about the evidence. We’ve handed over the same to the police and I think Fr Maniparambil gave that statement under the influence of the bishop’s aides,” said Sr Anupama.
Fr Maniparambil, who had earlier supported the nuns, did a flip-flop to say that the protest at Kochi was against the Church. “My earlier comment — that I found merit in the complaint by the nuns — was based on claims they had evidence. They had then talked about how the bishop used to talk to them, over the phone, in a sexually-explicit way. But they never showed me the evidence,” he said.