Around 22,000 patients and employees of the homes run by Missionaries of Charity (MC) are affected across India with a shortage of basic food and medicine, as news that the “Indian government has frozen the accounts of the Missionaries of Charity” has begun circulating on Monday, December 27.

Newsroom  (27/12/2021 12:41 PM Gaudium Press) People in the many homes run by the charity include children, seriously unwell people, sisters and staff who take care of them daily.
While an official confirmation was awaited, the Christian news website Matters India reported that Missionary Charity Sisters and Brothers had “confirmed the news.”
On a WhatsApp message, the superior general of the MC Sisters said all the accounts of brothers and sisters had been frozen, adding, “22000 patients and employees are left without food and medicine.” On December 27, a hearing for anticipatory bail for the Sisters of Mother Teresa Ashram Centre in Vadodara is due in the district court. According to other sources, a message from Br. Paul Eaton, MC Superior General of the MC brothers, confirmed that “all the accounts in India for MC brothers and sisters” were frozen.

Condemnation

The Vicar General in the Archdiocese of Calcutta, Fr. Dominic Gomes, also issued a statement: “In freezing the bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity Sisters and Brothers congregations, Government agencies have given a cruel Christmas gift to the poorest of the poor. Beyond the 22,000 direct dependants and beneficiaries at their centres across the country, MC Sisters and Brothers reach out to uplift thousands and are often the only friends of the lepers and social outcasts no one will even venture near. Overlooking the fact Missionaries of Charity of St. Mother Teresa give up all worldly goods, sleep on the floor and, and earn no money – giving whatever they have in service to the poorest in every corner of the earth, especially our poorest of Indians – this latest attack on the Christian Community and their social outreach is even more a dastardly attack on the poorest of India’s poor, who the MC congregation serves.”
Fr. Gomes has condemned the Government’s action against the MC, “appalled by the timing and lack of empathy to consider the humanitarian disaster this decision will cause.” He also that “the bogey of ‘conversion’ always been raised as justification, is more than patently false, boggles the mind with its incredulity. Had any Christian organization seriously tried to ‘convert’ with the efficiency they run their educational, medical and social intuitions, there would indeed be many more Christians converted in the 2,000 years Christianity has been on Indian soil than the 2.3% minority today. Across the globe, Christianity is not defined by conversion but by their unappalled love for their neighbour in action through their social outreach and social justice in society.”

Christians, “a soft target”

According to well-known peace activist and writer Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ, “a very effective strategy of fascists and dictators from time immemorial is to denigrate, demonize, divide and destroy the other.” For Fr. Prakash, “Christians of India have always been a ‘soft target’; in their ascent to power since the late 1990s -the BJP and their ilk in the Sangh Parivar- have systematically targeted the community in different ways and all over the country. The ‘bogey’ of forced conversion, the desecration of sacred objects, the attacks on Christians and their places of worship and institutions, the myriad threats, intimidation and harassments, the spreading of canard- are all part of a wider game plan to polarize the majority community and put Christians in bad light.”
“The Missionaries of Charity” -continues Fr. Prakash, “are high up at the receiving end of this viciousness and vilification. Mother Teresa and her legacy -selflessly continued today,- embody the highest of Christian Charity reaching out to the dying destitute, the poorest of the poor, the orphan and widow, the unloved and rejected, the lost, the lonely, the last and least, irrespective of one’s religious belief. False accusations are now foisted on the Sisters,” such as forced ‘conversions.’ He also recalled how the MCs care for “thousands of the rejected of India: day-in and day- out without counting the cost” and asked the Government to “reconsider this terrible decision and restore the good name and work of the MCs; if there are any laxities or shortcomings the MCs must be helped to rectify and address them; and above all, to ensure that those who are cared for in the MC institutions are not deprived of this basic humanitarian assistance.”

Official clarification

On the other hand, the Government has claimed it “did not freeze bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity (MC).” Instead, it has not renewed the sisters’ application Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), affirming it was “refused due to adverse inputs.” Government sources added that “no request or revision application has been received from Missionaries of Charity for review of refusal of renewal.” The renewal was refused on Christmas day, December 25, 2021, for “not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011.”
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHS), however, stated that the “Missionaries of Charity (MC) were registered under FCRA vide Registration No 147120001 and its registration was valid up-to October 31, 2021. The validity was subsequently extended up-to December 31, 2021 along with other FCRA Associations whose renewal application were pending renewal. However, while considering the Missionaries of Charity’s renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed. In consideration of these inputs on record, the renewal application of MC was not approved.”
At the time when this article was published, the MHS had not shared information on the quoted “adverse inputs” or if the MC had been informed about them.

By the end of the working day, December 27, 2021, IST the Missionaries of Charity (MC) have issued a comment responding to the government statement, clarifying that as the renewal of the FCRA renewal application was “not renewed,” they have asked their centres not to use FC accounts “till the matter is resolved.”