The ongoing strike by nuns in Kerala against the church is attracting a lot of attention. Many who are loyal to the Catholic establishment say that the fact that the nun did not complain for several months and apparently 'yielded' to the Bishop's sexual demands suggests that their relationship might have been consensual and that the nun cried rape only when something went wrong between them. But listening to the nuns accounts shown on TV, it certainly seems that there is another explanation why the nun did not protest initially.
We need to consider the powerful tradition of Catholic indoctrination of nuns - that is based on implicit obedience, total respect for the priestly hierarchy and devotion to the church duties. From the day a nun is ordained in the church, she will undergo deep indoctrination in the virtues of order, obedience, compliance and devotion. And disobedience or rebellion is treated as the greatest vice and is virtually unthinkable. Therefore when a nun encounters a lecherous priest who makes sexual advances, her first instinct would be to protect secrecy and honour of the church - because she is trained to value the sanctity and image of the church than to assert her own fundamental human rights against sexual harrassment. Therefore it is easy to force an indoctrinated and devout nun into sexual activity by a priest - because the nun's prime instinct would be NOT TO cause a commotion and malign the church's image - hence she cannot scream or fight openly or run out of the convent shouting for help. This inherent weakness of the nun owing to religious indoctrination has been serially exploited by the male priests - and in the history of the Catholicism at least in India - nuns have seldom rebelled openly against the church. There may isolated instances like Sister Jesme, but being alone, she could be easily be discredited by attributing insanity. In this instance, complaining against a bishop is a very drastic step for a nun especially when she is alone. If there is company of several nuns, it would be easier. It does seem that the bishop in this case had misbehaved to varying degrees with several nuns and this is why the nuns were able to network and ventilate their painful experiences among themselves and finally muster enough courage to come out into the open.
The Catholic Church is a very successful business establishment that makes its wealth through its hospitals, schools and colleges -and probably through . Its greatest advantage is the special brand of workers - the nuns - who work totally free. Incredibly, in India, even a nun who is a cardiologist cannot take any money for herself. All her salary goes into the bank account of the church. Of course, they are given free accommodation and free food and when they get old and ill they will be nursed by younger nuns. In contrast, priests, bishops and cardinals are allowed to have salaries, make money for themselves and have complete financial freedom and individual ownership rights. In the Catholic Church, male priests are masters even from the time they join while the women (nuns) are expected to be totally obedient and servile and work without pay for their entire lives.
Now, in Kerala, for the first time, the nuns are engaged in what seems like a Marxian conflict where the capitalist-worker division is drawn between the sexes - the oppressed workers (nuns) vs the masters (priests). Now, I don't see how this will resolve without the entire organization - in its current form of priestly bourgeoisie ruling the nun proletariat - disintegrating in Kerala. The unique economic system of the church that is a mix of capitalism, fedualism and slavery would need to give way to conventional social-democratic capitalism - as happened in Western Europe in the twentieth century - with the church - in the absence of totally disciplined nun-workers who don't need to be paid - finding it impossible to sustain the profitability of its educational and healthcare business.
We need to consider the powerful tradition of Catholic indoctrination of nuns - that is based on implicit obedience, total respect for the priestly hierarchy and devotion to the church duties. From the day a nun is ordained in the church, she will undergo deep indoctrination in the virtues of order, obedience, compliance and devotion. And disobedience or rebellion is treated as the greatest vice and is virtually unthinkable. Therefore when a nun encounters a lecherous priest who makes sexual advances, her first instinct would be to protect secrecy and honour of the church - because she is trained to value the sanctity and image of the church than to assert her own fundamental human rights against sexual harrassment. Therefore it is easy to force an indoctrinated and devout nun into sexual activity by a priest - because the nun's prime instinct would be NOT TO cause a commotion and malign the church's image - hence she cannot scream or fight openly or run out of the convent shouting for help. This inherent weakness of the nun owing to religious indoctrination has been serially exploited by the male priests - and in the history of the Catholicism at least in India - nuns have seldom rebelled openly against the church. There may isolated instances like Sister Jesme, but being alone, she could be easily be discredited by attributing insanity. In this instance, complaining against a bishop is a very drastic step for a nun especially when she is alone. If there is company of several nuns, it would be easier. It does seem that the bishop in this case had misbehaved to varying degrees with several nuns and this is why the nuns were able to network and ventilate their painful experiences among themselves and finally muster enough courage to come out into the open.
The Catholic Church is a very successful business establishment that makes its wealth through its hospitals, schools and colleges -and probably through . Its greatest advantage is the special brand of workers - the nuns - who work totally free. Incredibly, in India, even a nun who is a cardiologist cannot take any money for herself. All her salary goes into the bank account of the church. Of course, they are given free accommodation and free food and when they get old and ill they will be nursed by younger nuns. In contrast, priests, bishops and cardinals are allowed to have salaries, make money for themselves and have complete financial freedom and individual ownership rights. In the Catholic Church, male priests are masters even from the time they join while the women (nuns) are expected to be totally obedient and servile and work without pay for their entire lives.
Now, in Kerala, for the first time, the nuns are engaged in what seems like a Marxian conflict where the capitalist-worker division is drawn between the sexes - the oppressed workers (nuns) vs the masters (priests). Now, I don't see how this will resolve without the entire organization - in its current form of priestly bourgeoisie ruling the nun proletariat - disintegrating in Kerala. The unique economic system of the church that is a mix of capitalism, fedualism and slavery would need to give way to conventional social-democratic capitalism - as happened in Western Europe in the twentieth century - with the church - in the absence of totally disciplined nun-workers who don't need to be paid - finding it impossible to sustain the profitability of its educational and healthcare business.
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