12/27/2021: The Indian government on Monday "refused" to renew a permission that is vital for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity (MoC) to be able to secure foreign funds, cutting off a key source the charity has depended on to run its programs for the impoverished. Nobel-laureate Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, founded the MoC in 1950. The charity has more than 3,000 nuns worldwide who run hospices, community kitchens, schools, leper colonies and homes for abandoned children. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused permission to the charity under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) on Saturday after it received some "adverse inputs", a government statement said. "While considering the MoC's renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed," the home ministry said, without providing details. The ministry also rejected an earlier allegation of the West Bengal state chief minister Mamata Banerjee that the bank accounts of the charity were frozen. Later, the MoC in a statement confirmed their FCRA application was not renewed and that it has asked its centres not to operate any foreign contributions accounts until the matter is resolved. The move comes as hardline Hindu outfits affiliated to Modi's party have accused the MoC of leading religious

It is an attack on the poorest of the poor, said the Catholic church. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity said on Monday that it had asked its centres across India not to operate the organisation’s foreign contribution accounts after the Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew its permission to receive funds from abroad. The Catholic organisation runs more than 240 homes for orphans, the destitute and AIDS patients across India. The ministry said in a press release that the organisation’s application was refused on Christmas Day for failing to meet the eligibility conditions under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules 2011. “

Read the story in www.time.com Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, at a hospice for the destitute and dying in Kolkata, India, in 1969. India’s government has barred the Missionaries of Charity, the Catholic religious order and philanthropic organization started by Mother Teresa, from accessing foreign donations for not meeting eligibility conditions under local laws, the federal Home Ministry said. The charity, set up by the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1950, has its headquarters in the eastern city of Kolkata and works with some of the country’s most poor and destitute people. The group’s application to renew its license to continue getting foreign funds under India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act “was refused on 25 Dec. 2021 for not meeting the eligibility conditions,” the ministry said in a statement Monday. “No request / revision application has been received from Missionaries of Charity (MoC) for review of this refusal of renewal.” The Christian charity confirmed in a statement that the renewal of its FCRA application hasn’t been approved and that it has asked its centers not to operate foreign contribution accounts until the matter is resolved. The ministry’s statement gave no details on what rules the group had flouted. This is not the first time

All the bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity have been frozen on the behest of the central government, according to various reports. The central authorities have issued orders to cease all transactions through these bank accounts across India, leaving 22,000 patients and people without any treatment and food. The news was also confirmed on Twitter by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who said, “Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union Ministry FROZE ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India! Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food and medicines. While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised(sic).” According to a report by ABP (a national news daily), officials of the Charity in Kolkata said that they were aware of the order but refused to comment on the matter. However, there has been no confirmation from the centre or the Home Ministry at this time.

A Catholic church was vandalized in the southern Indian state of Karnataka even as lawmakers were debating the enactment of a law to prevent religious conversions. “A statue of Saint Anthony was found broken in St. Joseph Church in Bangalore Archdiocese on Dec. 23 morning,” said J.A. Kantharaj, archdiocesan public relations officer. “We have no clue who could be behind the attack,” he told UCA News, adding that the parish priest had already lodged a complaint with police who visited the church. St. Joseph Church is more than 150 years old and it is suspected that Hindu vigilantes may have been behind the attack as part of a well-orchestrated strategy to corner the Christian minority across Karnataka. Indian news agency ANI said a first information report has been registered by the rural police station against unknown persons for vandalizing Saint Anthony’s statue in Chickaballapur district, about 65 kilometers from state capital Bengaluru, known globally as the information technology capital of India. Of late, the southern state ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become one of the hotspots for anti-Christian violence, with Hindu groups accusing the minority community and its institutions of carrying out religious conversions. Karnataka has witnessed many churches and prayer houses