NUNS ARE FORCED TO COOK MEALS & WASH CLOTHES

Nuns in the church are forced to wash clothes and cook meals, a cardinal has claimed.

The candid admissions by Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, who is also the Major Archbishop of the Syro Malabar church, has been made in a book titled, 'Straight from the Heart', released recently.

"There have always been complaints that religious women are used as task force by parish priests. They just bear up the ill treatment, fearing the priests may not say Mass for them or fulfil their spiritual needs if they protested. These things are happening in a number of places," Vithyathail says.

"Religious women very often depend on bishops for land and money to start a convent. They feel they have to deal with priests and bishops with the utmost reverence, almost like slaves.

"A big complaint of our nuns is that the diocesan priests are treating them like servants, making them wash their clothes, prepare their food, wash the churches etc. and that too without getting paid. These are all unjust ways of treating women religious," he says.