Kerala nun's controversial autobiography now in English

The Catholic nun who made headlines with her controversial autobiography in Malayalam might continue to baffle the Church with her book now released in English.

52-year-old Sister Raphael Jesme, a former nun from Kerala, last week, published the Amen - Oru Kanyasthreeyude Atmakatha (Amen - an autobiography of a nun) in English.

In her book, the nun recounts her odd and agonising experiences for 30 years of convent life, which includes sexual exploitation and mental torture by her superiors.

The nun after the release said, "money, power and sex are still corrupting the church" and "the greed for wealth is permitting evil to creep in."

"Anybody who dares to speak out is gagged. The church does it all the time. They had done it to another sister in Kerala after diaries containing details about abortions in the church and illicit sexual relations were discovered," she said.

The nun who served as the principal of St Mary's College in Thrissur, quit her job after her harrowing experiences in the convent

Sr. Jesme says she is not against the Church but is seeking a 'renewal' in the religious order. "I am dedicated to Lord Jesus and he is my guiding spirit all these years."

The Trichur-born nun claims to have been receiving death threats after the release of her book. The Church also tried to bribe, she says.

She writes, "One sister said that she is going to sit in the corner of the chapel and pray the rosary so that all my books will be burnt and no person will be able to read it. I said let us wait and see whose prayer will God hear."

Claiming she still lives as a "nun" and have no plans to get married, Jesse says, her book would "throw light on the misunderstood convent life, engulfed in darkness."

"Thirty-three years cannot be penned down in 180 pages but there are points the I want to make about the capitation fee, the quarrels that happen within the church, about the homo-sexuality, the hetero-sexuality," says Jesme.

The book was released in the wake of a spate of suicides among nuns, murders and sex scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church in Kerala.