Indian court denies bail to Missionary of Charity accused of child trafficking

January 31, 2019 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

New Delhi, India, Jan 31, 2019 / 03:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A religious sister with the Missionaries of Charity accused of cooperating in the sale of a child from a home for unwed mothers has been denied bail by India’s Supreme Court, according to UCANews.

Sister Concelia (Konsalia) was arrested July 4, 2018 in connection with the reported sale of a child from the Nirmal Hriday home in Ranchi.

Her plea for bail was rejected this week by the India Supreme Court, due to a lack of formally filed charges from the police on the case. While the court urged police to file charges soon, Sr. Concelia remains in custody in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

It is the third time the sister has been denied bail, but the Supreme Court will allow her to apply again, UCANews reported Jan. 31.

Anima Indwar, an employee of the Nirmal Hriday home since 2012, was arrested the day before Sr. Concelia, in connection to the reported sale of the child. Indwar had been entrusted with escorting unwed mothers, their babies, and their guardians to the hospital and to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) office when the religious sisters were engaged with other duties.

Police were tipped off to the possible sale when a couple complained to the CWC in Ranchi that they had paid for a baby boy who was then taken away from them. The couple reportedly paid Indwar 120,000 Indian rupees ($1,760) for the child. They complained that Indwar took their money in exchange for the child, and that she later took the child back from them, without returning the money.

In a video, Sister Concelia said she found out about the reported sale after being questioned about it by the CWC. She asked Indwar, who then allegedly admitted to having tried to sell the child. Sr. Concelia said she then alerted the authorities about the matter and said the baby should be brought back.

A police source said at the time that Indwar provided to police a handwritten note from Sister Concelia asking Indwar to take the blame on herself, Matters India reported at the time.

Some Catholic bishops of the country have questioned whether Sister Concelia is actually guilty of collaborating with Indwar in the sale, or whether she is the victim of a coerced confession.

“Nobody was allowed to meet Sister Konsalia in custody,” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, said at the time. “Her advocate could meet her on Wednesday, eight days after her arrest, only after we approached the court,” he said July 12, according to the Hindustan Times. “During the 10 minutes interaction that the advocate could have with her, she said she was forced by the police to give her statement.”

The Albanian-born Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and canonized in 2016. There are now 5,167 Missionaries of Charity sisters, both active and contemplative, around the world. The order has 244 houses in India.

After the incident, the Missionaries of Charity released a statement expressing regret, sorrow and condemnation for the action, and their willingness to cooperate with authorities in the investigation. They also announced that they were conducting their own internal investigation of the case.

According to UCANews, local media reports have said that the Jharkhand government has revoked the sisters’ licence to run the Nirmal Hriday, but the sisters told UCA that they have received no official notification.

UCANews also reported that some Christian leaders believe that the incident is being used by pro-Hindu groups to cast Christians and missionaries in a bad light.

Bishop Mascarenhas told UCA news that he is concerned for the health of Sr. Concelia, a diabetic, while she is held in custody.

“We feel very sad that an innocent and physically unwell nun is behind bars,” he said. “We are pained that an aged innocent nun remains in jail when murderers and other hardcore criminals get bail.”

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Catholics are called to speak out against injustices, Hong Kong bishop says

July 2, 2018 CNA Daily News 3

Hong Kong, China, Jul 2, 2018 / 05:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church in Hong Kong is called to speak out in case of injustices, but it does not compete with the government, the bishop of the Chinese territory told CNA on the occasion of his ad limina visit to Rome.

Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung was making an ad limina visit along with the Bishop of Macau; the two territories are former British and Portuguese dependencies which are now part of the People’s Republic of China.

As a special administrative region, Hong Kong has a large degree of autonomy from mainland China, with its own political and economic system. The territory was a British colony from 1842 until 1997.

The bishops met with Pope Francis June 23, at the end of a week filled with meetings at Vatican offices, including a two-hour-long meeting with the Secretariat of State.

Bishop Yeung, who succeeded as Bishop of Hong Kong in August 2017, said that Hong Kong can have an influence on the Chinese way of life, as “Hong Kong is called to participate in China’s modernization, and not only from the political-economic point of view. The development of the country is not merely based on the economy.”

He added that the Catholic Church “mustn’t compete with the communist party for power and authority in this world. The Lord Jesus never told the disciples to compete with the Roman empire.”

Bishop Yeung underscored that “the Church has, however, her role to play. She is called to have a good attitude to dialogue, and at the same time she is called to tell the truth, and to speak out against social injustice, when the latter happens.”

The relation with the Church in mainland China is described by Bishop Yeung as “delicate.”

He explained that “the Chinese authorities’ message is that they do not want any interference in mainland China, and the most recent bill on foreign NGOs goes in that direction: everything must be approved by the government, and the government has the right to know whence the money comes.”

According to the law, foreign NGOs must register with the Ministry of Public Security or its provincial-level equivalents before establishing an office within mainland China.

The law paralleled increasing government regulations in many areas of public life.

The law affects aid that Hongkongers might send to mainland China, as “no one has certainty that the money arrives to its destination, and even a mere money transfer is considered a possible interference,” Bishop Yeung said.

Speaking about the long-rumored, potential Holy See – China deal, Bishop Yeung said that “the Church has a very clear role: she does not compete with the government; she is called to speak out when there are injustices.”

He added that “we understand that the Holy See is entertaining a dialogue with the government in Beijing, and it is normal that there are also people against this. We trust in our Lord. Fifty years ago, the door between the Vatican and Beijing was shut, and now we are struggling to find a very narrow opening.”

Bishop Yeung concluded that he does not know “where the agreement will take us,” but he believes that “God will take us on the right way. There have been mistakes, and perhaps there will be others. We are human. But our Lord will guide us.”

Bishop Yeung said that one of the topics of discussion with Vatican officials during the ad limina was the potential registration of a Catholic university of Hong Kong.

At the moment, the Caritas Institute for Higher Education has been established, and counts some 2,000 students. In 2014, it was announced that the school aims to be recognized as a university by education officials within five years.

Once the recognition will be finalized, it will be named “St. Francis University.”

According to Bishop Yeung, the Chinese government has an interest in accrediting a Catholic university in Hong Kong because of the “one country, two systems” principle which articulates the autonomous relationship between the territory and mainland China.

“We can have our way of doing things,” the bishop explained. “I think Hong Kong can be very important for China, as it is its open window to the world. If the central government were to shut down everything in Hong Kong, it would prove that the principle ‘one country, two systems’ cannot work.”

[…]

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*