Amen - an autobiography of a nun by Dr Sister Jesme

A book written by a former nun is threatening to embarrass the Catholic Church in Kerala.

is written by former nun Dr Sister Jesme and threatens to reveal what allegedly happens behind the closed doors of convents.

The book claims that harassment and sexual repression take place in convents.

........


Born C Meamy Raphael, Jesmi writes in her autobiography that she got her first rude shock when she was a Novitiate. ''At a retreat for novices, I noticed girls in my batch were unsettled about going to the confession chamber. I found that the priest there asked each girl if he could kiss them. I gathered courage and went in. He repeated the question. When I opposed, he quoted from the Bible which spoke of divine kisses,'' she writes.

Her second shock was from an ordained nun. ''I was sent to teach plus-two students in St Maria College. There, a new sister joined to teach Malayalam; she was a lesbian. When she tried to corner me, I had no way but to succumb to her wishes. She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I could not stop her,'' she writes.

In Bangalore for a refresher course in English, she writes, ''I was told to stay at the office of a priest respected for his strong moral side. But when I reached the station, he was waiting there and hugged me tight on arrival. Later in the day, he took me to Lalbagh and showed me cupid struck couples and tried to convince me about the need for physical love. He also narrated stories of illicit relations between priests and nun to me. Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip,'' Jesmi recounts.

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Church in India: Virakta Mutt in Deshanur, Belgaum has a Christian priest and Hindu Muslim devotees

In these troubled times of religious intolerance and rise of fundamentalism,, a village 25 km from Belgaum, stands out as a

beacon of hope. The church here has adapted itself to local culture so much so that it is called a ‘mutt’ — — and has both Christian and Hindu features.

The walls are adorned with teachings of Basavanna, Sarvajna, Akkamahadevi, Kabir Das, Tulsi Das, Sur Das, Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa and Meera. The church priest wears a saffron shawl; the devotees, comprising Hindus and Muslim, recite verses from the Bible, Gita and Koran.

“The essence is peaceful coexistence of all faiths,’’ says priest Fr Menino. The village has a population of around 11,000 and is dominated by Lingayats and Muslims. The priest is the lone Christian member in the village.

The priest worked closely with the villagers and started the first girls’ school, helped build roads, brought post office and electricity to the village. The church runs a primary school with 459 students and provides hostel accommodation to 46 poor students. Most villagers prefer to send their children to the church school.
Church in India: Virakta Mutt in Deshanur, Belgaum has a Christian priest and Hindu Muslim devotees Sphere: Related Content

Marriage rates fall to 21.6 per 1000 men and to 19.7 for 1000 women

The levels for men and women were the lowest since records were first kept in 1862.
High profile divorce cases, the escalating cost of weddings, and the failure of the Government to support the institution of marriage were among the factors blamed.
It is now likely that married couples will be in the minority by next year as people increasingly choose to live together out of wedlock.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, for the year 2007 in England and Wales, showed that 21.6 men out of every 1,000 men got married, down from 23 the previous year. The rate for women was 19.7 per 1,000, down from 20.7 in 2006.
The levels for men and women were the lowest since records were first kept in 1862.
There were a total of 231,450 marriages in 2007, an annual fall of 3.3 per cent, and the lowest number since 1895 when the population was little more than half its present level.
The figures pre-date the current financial crisis which is likely to have exacerbated the downward trend in marriage as couples put off their weddings because of the cost.
Average costs for a wedding have more than doubled over the last decade to more than £21,000.
The Government has been accused of fuelling the breakdown of marriage by introducing changes to the tax and benefits system that left married couples up to £5,000-a-year worse off than people who stay single.


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Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith: Vatican

The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.

A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life.

Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor science”. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenon”, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.



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Alzheimer's is brain diabetes

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Father Gerhard Maria Wagner, who said Hurricane Katrina 'divine retribution,' was made Bishop

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New Book on Moltmann by Scott R. Paeth: Exodus Church and Civil Society

This book investigates the intersection of theology and social theory in the work of Jurgen Moltmann. In particular, it examines the way in which his concept of the 'Exodus Church' can illuminate the importance of the idea of civil society for a Christian public theology. The concept of civil society can aid in moving from the narrower category of 'political theology,' a term used frequently by Moltmann to emphasize the church's public commitment, to a broader understanding of theology's public task, which takes into account the plurality of ends and institutions within society. The idea of the Exodus Church enables deeper understanding of Christian ethical participation within a complex modern society.


Scott R. Paeth is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University, USA.


Publisher: Ashgate (October 1, 2008), 250 pages

ISBN-10: 0754662012
ISBN-13: 978-0754662013

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Jimmy Carter's New Baptist Covenant message of racial reconciliation and cooperation on social issue

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February 12, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin

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