According to the BBC, the Missionaries of Charity, a charity started by Mother Teresa, has regained permission from India’s government to receive foreign donations. This news comes weeks after the charity was denied a renewal of its license to receive the foreign donations it depended on to serve to poorest of India’s poor.
Derek O’Brien, a lawmaker from the opposition Trinamool Congress Party, tweeted that the Missionaries of Charity was back on the list of approved organization to receive foreign donations. India’s government is yet to comment, but according to various media reports, the licenses was restored after “necessary documents were submitted to concerned department.”
On December 25, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs ruled that the Missionaries of Charity no longer met the eligibility requirements for foreign donations under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act. The ministry claimed unspecified “adverse inputs” as the reasoning for the decision.
In early December, the Missionaries of Charity was put under investigation in Gujarat after several false complaints were made against its shelters. Specifically, the shelters were accused of forcing girls to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers. Missionaries of Charity have denied these allegations as false and an attempt to besmirch the legacy of Mother Teresa.
Earlier this week, the National Catholic Register reported the Missionaries of Charity was rationing the distribution of aid to India’s poor following the government’s decision to block foreign donations.
Missionaries of Charity was founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1950. The charity now runs hundreds of shelters across India where “the poorest of the poor” receive care.
In recent years, the legacy of Mother Teresa and her works in India have come under assault by radical Hindu nationalists. Nationalists falsely claim Mother Teresa was involved in the fraudulent conversion of India’s poor and desperate to Christianity. These statements and accusations are meant to cast a negative light on Mother Teresa and India’s Christian community.
