NUNS -Deaths inside Convents

Second nun commits suicide in Kerala

Kerala generates the most male and female Religious in India. Brother Theckenath says the state has 33,226 nuns. According to the 2006 CRI directory, India has 102,810 nuns and 7,216 novices.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

By Jeemon Jacob

Another Catholic nun has committed suicide in Keral, and Church people in the southern Indian state see part of the problem as lying within convent life.

“Some situations drive nuns to suicide,” says Montfort Brother Varghese Theckenath, president of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the national association of Catholic Religious. “We are honest to admit the problem and we have to sort it out,” he told UCA News.

Kerala generates the most male and female Religious in India. Brother Theckenath says the state has 33,226 nuns. According to the 2006 CRI directory, India has 102,810 nuns and 7,216 novices.

According to Joseph Pulikunnel, a Catholic lay leader who edits Osanna (Hosanna) magazine, Kerala has recorded 15 cases of suicide among nuns in the past 12 years. The latest was Clarist Sister Lisa, whose body was found on June 23 in the guestroom of her convent near Kottayam, 2,650 kilometers south of New Delhi.

The police found a suicide note that cited disappointment in life as the reason the 34-year-old nun took the extreme step. An autopsy showed no wounds on her body. Police official P.B. Vijayan said Sister Lisa consumed poison, and investigators reported finding traces of pesticide in Sister Lisa’s room.

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