Pope Accepts Resignation of Former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal

Verghese V Joseph –

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Diocese of Jalandhar presented by former Bishop Franco Mulakkal. He will now be known as Franco Bishop Emeritus.

Franco Bishop Emerirus was charged in a sexual abuse case and later acquitted by Kottayam district Additional Sessions Court. Kottayam police registered Franco’s case in 2018 and he was arrested on September 21, 2018. Later, he was removed from the Jalandhar Diocese.

A press release issued by the Apostolic Nunciature noted that  High Court has admitted an appeal against his acquittal in the case. The authority also clarified that Mulakkal’s resignation was requested as ‘pro bono Ecclesiae’, especially for the good of the diocese which needs a new bishop.

In a Press Release from the diocese, Bishop Agnelo Gracias, “I have received a message from the Apolotic Nunciature that the Holt Father has accepted the resignation of Bishop Franco Mulakkal as Bishop of Jalandhar. Hence, the Diocese of Jalandhar is vacant. The Nunciature has also forwarded a decree of the Dicastery for the Evangelisation of Prophets appointing me Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese, sede vacante.”

“I hereby reinstate in office the Vicar Generals, the Episcopal Vicars and the other officials of the Diocese. For the present, they all continue in the offices they have been holding,” he said.

“We express our appreciation for his decision to resign for the good of the church and of the diocese, thereby paving the way for the appointment of o new bishop,” he added.

A local court in Kottayam acquitted Mulakkal from the rape charges in 2022. In February, he visited Pope Francis in the Vatican. In a video message, Franco Mulakkal said that he informed the Pope during the meeting about his decision to step down from the post. “I resigned from the post for the sake of the Jalandhar diocese and appointment of a new bishop,” he said.

Mulakkal  (57) was accused of raping a nun multiple times during his visit to a convent in Jalandhar diocese between 2014 and 2016 when he was the bishop there of the Roman Catholic church.

The survivor is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, a congregation under the diocese.

Trial in the case, which started in November 2019, had concluded on January 10. In her complaint to the police in June, 2018, the nun had alleged that she was subjected to sexual abuse by Franco Mulakkal between 2014 and 2016. The court had restrained the print and electronic media from publishing any matter relating to the trial in the case without permission.