Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini was elected the president of the Conference of Religious India, the national body of major superiors of India’s Catholic religious, in November 2021 and assumed office in January 2022. The 58-year-old educator also heads the women section of the conference as well as the Apostolic Carmel congregation.
Nirmalini advocates empowerment of women religious, mutual sharing, and leadership to tackle the oppressive patriarchal system and gender inequality within the Indian church. She is starting “grievance cells” for religious sisters.
“Yes, my first step was to set up this cell, which is operational now. The last meeting of our executive body [in early March in New Delhi] approved the cell’s rules, regulations and the operation mechanism.
The cell is headed by experts from men and women religious as well as laypeople. None of them is from the conference’s executive body so that it can function as an independent body. It will then report to the conference’s executive body for a final settlement.This cell will deal with any grievance, not just sexual harassment, from both the women and men religious. They can call the cell or message it. We are now trying to get this message to the grassroots by organizing awareness sessions at regional and local levels.”
“I think we need to look at our formation system to help our sisters grow up with independent thinking, dignity and leadership instead of forming them to be obedient sheep. Perhaps the lack of individual growth and freedom dissuades people from joining convents.
We now train sisters with professional skills to suit every area of life and service along with their spiritual and theology formation. We are grateful to the Hilton Foundation for its great support to form our sisters as agents of social change”.