Swati Deb
New Delhi : A day after a nun working at Ranchi-based and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity was arrested in Jharkhand on charge of selling infants, the apex Christian body Catholic Bishops” Conference of India (CBCI) on Friday expressed shock at the incident.
“We are completely shocked by what happened at our home in Ranchi,” a statement from CBCI said here.
The statement further said the organisation “will take all necessary precautions that this kind of incident will never happen again.”
“It should never have happened. It is completely against our moral convictions. We are carefully looking into this matter,” the statement said.
The statement comes close on heels of Jharkhand police arresting a woman working at the Missionaries of Charity centre in Ranchi for allegedly selling infants. Police also detained two nuns of the congregation, which was founded by Teresa in 1950.
Authorities and law enforcing agencies have sealed the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, a home run by Mother Teresa’s religious order and charged a nun and other persons with baby trafficking. The home, run by Missionaries of Charity has been known for providing shelter to pregnant unmarried women.
According to a senior Jharkhand police official the case came to light after Child Welfare Committee (CWC) conducted an inspection at the Missionaries of Charity’s center on Jail Road in Ranchi in connection with a child missing complaint.
Sister Mary Prema, superior of the congregation, said: ” We are completely shocked by what has happened in our home. It should never have happened”. The episode has embarrassed the acclaimed Christian-run Teresa”s Missionaries of Charity.
Sister Prema, a German native, is the third successor of Mother Teresa, who was also granted Sainthood recently. Jharkhand Police also reportedly recovered Rs 1,40,000 rupees from the Mother Teresa centre of charity in Ranchi. Police say essentially “desperate childless parents” have been doing the baby purchase illegally in nexus with such organisations or individuals working in such charity houses.
The CWC, Jharkhad has ordered transfer of 12 pregnant women who were living in the missionary”s Ranchi centre, reports said. “They were selling more babies than what they were handing over to authorities,” said Baidnath Kumar, a Ranchi-based child rights activist who had filed complaints against the home.
