Future Uncertain for Mother Teresa’s Charity After Indian Government Cuts Access to Foreign Funds

The future of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India hangs in the balance after the government said it would not renew permission for it to access foreign funding.

Mother Teresa, who was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, received multiple honors for her work for the sick and dying, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. A Catholic nun who was born to Albanian parents, she founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 in Kolkata, where she lived for most of her life, before her death in 1997.

With more than 5,000 nuns worldwide in 120 countries, the charity provides education, medical care, social assistance and disaster relief to the poor.

The charity’s renewal application was refused Dec. 25 after “adverse inputs were noticed,” the government said in a statement. It did not clarify the nature of its findings.