{"id":927,"date":"2011-07-25T09:44:02","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T13:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?p=927"},"modified":"2011-07-25T09:51:02","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T13:51:02","slug":"india-tells-63-year-old-nun-to-leave-pressure-from-extremists-blamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/07\/india-tells-63-year-old-nun-to-leave-pressure-from-extremists-blamed.html","title":{"rendered":"India tells 63-year-old nun to leave; pressure from extremists blamed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 63-year-old British nun caring for leprosy patients for three decades in Bangalore, India, was preparing to leave the country Monday after the Indian government refused to extend her resident permit without giving any reason.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sister Jean working with patients<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m leaving with a heavy heart. I feel it\u2019s not my loss alone but a loss to thousands of patients inflicted by leprosy,\u201d Jacqueline Jean McEwan, whom leprosy patients call their \u201cMother Teresa,\u201d told the Times of India<\/em> Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sister Jean, as she is popularly known, wasn\u2019t given any reason by the Ministry of Home Affairs but just asked to leave by Monday, The Hindu<\/em> newspaper reported.\u00a0She is affiliated with\u00a0the Montfort Missionaries, a Catholic order in Britain.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Christian Post,<\/em> Dr. Sajan K. George of the Karnataka-based Global Council of Indian Christians said he suspected the role of the Karnataka state government ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which he described as “the government of religious fundamentalists with a retrograde ideology.” He also blamed the intelligentsia for being silent, which he said was “more deafening than ever.”<\/p>\n

The nun had been working with Sumanahalli Society in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka which is seen as the hotbed of anti-Christian violence. The charity, founded by the Catholic Archbishop of Bangalore in 1978 and which has won national and international awards, treats and rehabilitates leprosy patients.<\/p>\n

Leprosy-affected persons are still seen as physically and spiritually \u201cimpure\u201d and \u201ccontagious\u201d by sections of the Indian society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the stigma attached to leprosy patients left on the streets to beg, she treated them, undeterred by the stench and wounds. I feel Sumanahalli\u2019s heart has been ripped out. Without her, we doubt Sumanahalli will be the same again,\u201d said Father George Kannanthanam, Director of Sumanahalli Society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 63-year-old British nun caring for leprosy patients for three decades in Bangalore, India, was preparing to leave the country Monday after the Indian government refused to extend her resident permit without giving any reason. \u201cI\u2019m leaving with a heavy heart. I feel it\u2019s not my loss alone but a loss to thousands of patients…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,99,7,59],"tags":[47,114,101,100],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-2","category-hindu","category-india","category-news","tag-catholic","tag-india","tag-jacqueline-jean-mcewan","tag-sister-jean"],"yoast_head":"\nIndia tells 63-year-old nun to leave; pressure from extremists blamed - Pray for the Persecuted Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/07\/india-tells-63-year-old-nun-to-leave-pressure-from-extremists-blamed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India tells 63-year-old nun to leave; pressure from extremists blamed - Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 63-year-old British nun caring for leprosy patients for three decades in Bangalore, India, was preparing to leave the country Monday after the Indian government refused to extend her resident permit without giving any reason. \u201cI\u2019m leaving with a heavy heart. 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