MY VIEW ON AMEN

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There are two sides to Amen. First, how entertaining is Amen, as a book, and the second is the subject matter. And although it's difficult to separate the two, I have to make that distinction here. Amen is the autobiography of a nun, something that's very apparent from the name.

Sister Jesme, born in 1956, realized that she wanted to spend her life in service to Jesus when she was in her late teens. She completed all those courses and compulsory tests that you are supposed to do if you want to become a nun, for years and years apparently.

After joining the Church as a nun, she realises that things are not like she thought they would be. In her book she mentions that homosexuality is very common in the Church and those who don't reciprocate the senior sisters' advances have to face the consequences. Sister Jesme was forced into a homosexual relationship with a sister and although everyone knew about it, they did not object. In fact, they encouraged her to co-operate for their peace of mind. She states examples where a few priests are involved in sexual relationships with the nuns. She also tells us that corruption is very common in schools and colleges run by the church. They ask for donations and many sisters harbour petty jealousies against other sisters.

Sister Jesme was very outspoken on various issues such as donations among others which led to some of the senior sisters turning against her. They perceived her as a threat. She gives a lot of examples and incidents to prove the point. After some years, when she becomes the principal of a college, they try to remove her from the post by falsely accusing her of wrongdoing. That is unsuccessful, and then they try to get her admitted to a mental hospital, and start treatment on her. Finally, she has enough and leaves the Congregation and goes into hiding. She is afraid that they will force her to come back and eventually somehow prove that she is mentally unstable.

The press comes to know about it and they question the congregation. They're told that she is mentally unstable. That's when sister Jesme comes out with the truth.

This book is one more embarrassment to the Catholic Church in Kerala along with a string of incidents that have been splashed across South Indian newspapers recently. There was the sister Abhaya murder case, in which two Catholic priests and a nun were arrested...and the suicide of a nun who was made to do all the chores in her convent...who was sexually harassed by the head of convent at night...

All I can say is that whatever be her personal reasons for writing the book, I feel it was necessary. A few corrupt priests and nuns should not be allowed to corrupt the entire church system. For those who think this book is against the church and all the holy nuns, let me tell you it isn't. It's against corruption and a few bad people. I hope the church instead of denying the charges and accusations, tries to find the guilty and make it safe for others.

The book also reminds you of the papal hegemony of the Victorian days where the Church reigned supreme, but times have changed the cultural setting is different -- in a country like India.

Now onto the point about how entertaining was the book. Honestly it was not what I had thought initially . The first 100 pages were excellent, but beyond that I had to drag myself to know what happens in the end. The writing style is very novice and it's like reading history notes or something! One incident blends into the other and before you try and understand what happened, you are pulled into an entirely non-related incident. A few of my Malayali friends who have read both the English and the Malayali versions say the English one is better.

But the autobiography needs to appreciated for the fact that a gutsy nun has come forward to speak against a system with which the common man is completely cut off . Especially, for people like me who have studied in a convent school, who have seen nuns from a close distance but never had a brush with this aspect of the Sisters.