‘Nun’ Mary Chandy

Writer regrets helping ‘nun’ Mary Chandy

July 31, 2012 

By Jose Kurien 

DC 

Kozhikode

Tags: 

Jose Pazhookkaran

Thursday, Aug 09, 2012 Last Update: 09:19 AM IST

Writer Jose Pazhookkaran who helped the controversial nun Sr Mary Chandy publish her autobiography Swasthy, wears a contrite look these days.

He feels he has wronged the Catholic Church by befriending a woman, who, according to him now, is not a nun at all. What once looked like defiance has now been replaced by penitence.

The book contains graphic details about the tortuous life within the confines of nunneries. Looks like Pazhookkaran has done an about turn by disowning the former nun.

He says he was lured into believing that Mary Chandy was a nun while in reality she was only a ‘washer woman’ in a convent.

DC had carried a story on the nun’s autobiography in-the-making on April 1. And its contents, some of which were discussed, were anything but noble.

Pazhookkaran said he had done a bit of sleuthing on his own to find out how true the nun’s ‘facts’ were. He says he then learnt that the nun was no nun at all.

“I have asked the publishers not to print the book any more”, he said, adding that according to what he had found out, the woman, Mary Chandy, was just a washer woman in a nunnery.

“Though she had tried to become a nun, she was not allowed into any of the congregations”, he added. He also alleged that the woman was from a family which had a history of crime.

Sources told DC that the Catholic Church had deputed a fact finding team to examine the details given in the autobiography which even alleged that some priests had tried to rape her. The team had been to several spots mentioned in the book and otherwise, to collect evidence. The church is planning to come out with the facts soon, it is learned.

However, Sr Mary Chandy said she stood by all that she had written. “Whatever’s in the book is true”, she said. She said she couldn’t understand why Jose Pazhookkaran was spreading such tales about her.

“Mr Pazhookkaran just helped me to write the book and it was his duty to ensure that whatever I had said was true. And this should have come before I began work on the book”, she said.

Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle