a home in canada or a kitchen in some churchrun centre people are either too trusting or too scared to speak out about these atrocitiesvattoli kalapura and jesme are however rare voices the church in kerala has enormous influence on the laity over theological and ecclesiastical matters the church has a strong organisational structure maybe even stronger than the communists church leaders have good relationships with leaders of all political parties so no prominent leader would dare to speak up on issues like these said sunny m kapikad one of the states leading public intellectualsthe church itself has stuck to a strictly juridical line the full facts are yet to be available regarding this matter the nuns problems then and now seem to be centred on transfers and postings no one within the church would ever face any pressure just because they raise an allegation but they should be able to prove their allegations said father varghese vallikkat spokesperson of kerala catholic bishops conferencethe states leading politicians are playing it safe opposition leader and senior congress leader ramesh chennithala said these are issues pertaining to a religious organization i cant comment on itma baby cpm politburo member was more forthcoming recent incidents raise doubts about whether there is a means within the church for nuns priests and the laity to democratically raise their grievances we need to evaluate whether the church in kerala is showing an attitude compatible with the views of pope francis he saidmeanwhile the investigation into the nun rape case is almost complete we waited for enough convincing evidence before we arrested bishop franco the chargesheet is now ready and will be submitted soon said kottayam sp harishankar who headed the investigation