The bishops may be crying foul over the move to decriminalise homosexuality, but a former nun reminds that Catholic institutions of celibacy are havens for gays. Sr Jesme, who exposed the underbelly of the convents and other church institutions in her bestselling autobiography, hopes the legalisation of homosexuality would help monasteries to maintain their sacredness.
“If lesbians could seek partners legally, they would not have to take refuge in a convent. They would not have to languish in the sacred atmosphere of a convent,” Jesme writes in an article in a Malayalam weekly. In her autobiography, Amen, Jesme tells her own experience with a lesbian nun, who forcibly slept with her inside her convent room. The Christian institutions built on celibacy are full of homosexual and heterosexual tendencies, the book says.
“If gays find partners outside, nuns would be saved from their advances,” Jesme says.
“We should give a thought to the perspective of homosexuals and lesbians who are born that way. It’s not their fault if they are born that way. The Church doesn’t explain what god’s plan about them is. A psychologist-priest has told me that 5% of people are born with homosexual orientation and most of the Catholics among them are attracted to monasteries,” she said.
Jesme’s autobiography was a major embarrassment to the Church when it hit the stands in February 2009. She started working on the book after she took a six-month sabbatical from her vocation as the principal of St Mary’s College, Thrissur. With four more years of service remaining, she quit the college and the Congregation of Mother Carmelite in August 2008. She alleges that her superiors in the congregation wanted to brand her mentally ill.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has vehemently opposed the Delhi High Court’s decision to do away with section 377 of the IPC, which penalises homosexuality. The bishops think homosexuality would weaken family values.
