Nuns unhappy with convent life: Church study

Magh Shuddha Panchami

By VR Jayaraj

Kochi (Kerala): Even as the Catholic Church in Kerala is trying to get out of the several controversies surrounding convents, Sathyadeepam weekly, the official organ of the Syro-Malabar Church, has admitted that almost 20 percent of the nuns are feeling mentally insecure or unaccepted in convents. The weekly says that five per cent of the nuns are feeling permanently unaccepted.

A study report by Fr Joy Kalliath of the CMI and endorsed by Bishop Yvon Ambroise of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, published in the latest edition of Sathydeepam, says that some nuns sought solace in suicide as the feeling of being unaccepted turned into total disillusionment. Church sources admitted that the report of Fr Kalliath had particular significance in the context of events like the suicide by a nun, Sr Anupa Mary, in a Kollam convent in August last.

The new report has come close on the heels of the Church’s observation that there was a 30-40 per cent fall in the number of girls opting to be nuns due to various reasons. There are about 45,000 nuns in Kerala at present.

The report in Sathyadeepam argues that the gap between the haves and have-nots is rampant in the convents and the have-nots used to get isolated from the rest of the convent community. Fr Kalliath says that nuns coming from low-income families looked unsettled in the nun’s life and this has been growing into gross disillusionment and thereby to mental disturbances.

"The nuns who came from the middle class and below were more unsettled in their religious life, mainly due to the strained economic background from which they had come. They had come with very big ambitions, which they could not fulfill," he says. These ambitions are mainly about getting quality education and better jobs that ensure good income.

The priest’s study found out that those with higher qualifications – coming normally from well-off families enjoyed greater influence and their views and ideas carried more weight. "There is no equal acceptance or status for all in our convents," says the priest. "When disillusionment sets in, some commit suicide and some elope with someone," says Fr Kalliath.

"What we see now are the symptoms. The graphs of suicide and eloping are steadily rising. Some nuns are also choosing to go out of the convent and live alone… As far as the church is concerned, it is a very serious threat," he points out.

He says that the nuns’ community itself is graded according to the professional status of the inmates. "As a result, the less influential group feels dejected and sidelined. This in turn pushes them gradually into negative thinking and disillusionment. And if they are offered a chance to go outside for higher studies, they take more freedom than they should. They are usually so cut off from the world that they get carried away by the freedom they get outside," Fr Kalliath says.

The priest adds that almost five per cent of the nuns never come to terms with the religious life they lead. "They are not happy being in the religious life and yet they continue in it. Nuns do not get enough affection and acceptance in their communities. It naturally follows that, in such an ambient, they cannot also achieve anything worthwhile," he says.

According to the study, almost all ills of the modern-day society have affected the convents. The consumerist mentality has been playing havoc with religious life, Fr Kalliath writes. "We are living in a society that is highly influenced by consumerism," he says, adding this has influenced religious life also. "The glamour of luxury is affecting convents and monasteries very badly. It can slowly kill religious life," the priest warns.

The priest’s study was based on sixty nuns, all Malayalees, of an average age of 30-40 years from four congregations under the Kerala diocese of Irinjalakuda.

He had taken fifteen members each from the congregations of Clarists (FCC), Carmelites (CMC), Holy Family and Samaritan Sisters for the study. Some of these nuns frankly told the priest during the study that they had not freely accepted their religious life.  

Source: haindavakeralam.com 

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