Author: AFP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 29, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/451257.cms
The head of a Catholic order of
nuns , the Brigittines, has been accused by an Italian magistrate of violence
against six novices from India at a convent near Rome, the newspaper Il
Messaggero reported on Wednesday.
Sister Tekla Famiglietti, 66, general
abbess of the order that has 600 nuns in 40 convents around the world,
put the six Indian nuns-in-training on housework and reportedly refused
them any medical assistance. Their passports were also taken by Famiglietti,
according to the paper that cited the Catholic news agency Adista.
The incidents occurred in a convent
in Farfa in the province of Rieti, not far from the Italian capital, the
report said.
It said the novices were not even
given time to pray, and were given no pay.
Sister Tekla has been the order's
mother superior for 24 years. She travelled to Cuba last March to meet
Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the opening of a home Castro gave as a gift
to the order there.
The report said the order's directors
blasted the allegations as "false" and warned they would take legal steps
against the paper to uphold the Brigittines' reputation.
Founded in 14th-century Sweden,
the Brigittines is a monastic order with the day devoted to prayer and
simple, manual work.
