By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, January 8, 2022: Christians in India on January 8 expressed relief and joy over the federal government decision to restore the Missionaries of Charity’s license to receive overseas funds.
The “most welcome” news, says Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national secretary of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group for Catholic religious, responding to the official nod for renewing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) certificate of the congregation founded by Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata.
The federal Ministry of Home Affairs on January 7 restored the 71-year-old congregation’s registration, which is mandatory to receive donations from overseas.
“If there is anyone serving selflessly the most unwanted of our society it’s the Missionaries of Charity Sisters and Brothers,” asserts Sister Dorothy, the Patna-based member of the Presentation congregation.
Brinelle D’Souza, chairperson of the Centre for Health and Mental, School of Social Work under the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences, too says the Teresa nuns work “with the poorest of the poor on issues where even the state is absent.”
Father Anand Mathew, a social activist in Varanasi, says the license restoration has brought “immense relief to so many of us.” The member of the Indian Missionary Society says he and other activists in Varanasi have been mobilizing the civil society to support the two homes managed by the Teresa sisters in the ancient city.
Sister Jessy Kurian, a Supreme Court lawyer, welcomed the news saying “finally justice is done.” The registration renewal shows that the government has not only recognized but reaffirmed the selfless service being rendered to humanity especially to Indian people by the Teresa nuns, she told Matters India.
The ministry December 25, 2021, stated that it had not renewed the Teresa congregation’s FCRA registration since it had received “some adverse inputs” about the nuns’ activities such as indulging in religious conversion. The registration was valid only until October 31, 2021, but extended it for two more months, the ministry added.
The delay in FCRA renewal was among plethora problems the Teresa nuns have faced in the past few months.
Sister Fernandes points out that false accusations leveled against the Missionaries of Charity in various states of India, particularly in places such as Vadodara in the Gujarat and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, both states now ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A local court in Vadodara January 5 directed the city police to “refrain from arresting” two Teresa nuns until January 10, while adjourning the hearing in their anticipatory bail application, in a case under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003.
The nuns were booked for allegedly “hurting Hindu religious sentiments” and “luring towards Christianity young girls” in their shelter home in Vadodara.
In Kanpur, the nuns had to shut a 53-year-old orphanage in a cantonment area following the expiry of its land lease. The Defense establishment claimed that the lease for the land had expired in 2019 and called the nuns trespassers. It levied a fine of 20 million rupees or face eviction. The nuns decided to vacate the place.
The FCRA registration was renewed as the United Kingdom Parliament debated the issue and sought to know if the British government had raised the issue of blocking of overseas funds of the Missionaries of Charity and other NGOs with India.
Father Mathew says many people are willing to help the Teresa nuns as they are convinced of their great selfless service. But the nuns have “develop a better system by which people can make online money transfer. He wants the nuns to change their current system of having one account for the entire congregation.
“Each community should have its own Indian local bank account, auditing system and Android phone for communication. Every Christian organization at the service of the poor can and ought to mobilize funds locally. We need to be fully Indian in every sense of the word,” Father Anand asserted.
Sister Kurian points out the government renewed the registration without much delay, but it was one after much hue and cry.
Denial of the registration has brought “untold misery” to thousands of people who benefit from the Teresa nuns’ service. It also caused agony and mental torture to the nuns, she added. The lawyer nun wants the government to promote NGOs that render “genuine services” to humanity in various capacities.
D’Souza says the government retreated “because of huge protests across the country and even internationally. It was basically testing the waters and probably didn’t expect such a backlash.”
“How come the adverse inputs were sorted out after the uproar and not earlier?” she asks.
She also points out that the registration of many other organizations still stands cancelled. “And this continues to be a matter of deep concern. Many of these organizations are involved in rights based work or serving people in remote areas. FCRA has become a political tool,” she bemoans.