INDIA, October 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity say they can no longer facilitate adoptions in India, because the government now requires adoption agencies to place children in broken homes or with single people.
India's adoption laws have recently been liberalized to require agencies to adopt children to single, divorced or separated people. The new government rules also include closer monitoring of adoption agencies and their adherence to the new rules. The Missionaries previously had the freedom to accept or reject prospective parents as they discerned best for the child.
Sister Amala of North Delhi explained that the new rules go against what the Missionaries believe is best for the child. “The new guidelines hurt our conscience,” she explained. “They are certainly not for religious people like us … What if the single parent who we give our baby [to] turns out to be gay or lesbian? What security or moral upbringing will these children get? Our rules only allow married couples to adopt.”
Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, the head of the Holy See Press Office, explained that the Missionaries “strongly believe that a child up for adoption must have both a father and a mother and are against adoption by homosexuals, lesbians or single parents.”
Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi said that the sisters were not submitting to the new rules, forcing the government to derecognize them. Gandhi told a conference on women and children that the Missionaries of Charity did not want to “come under a uniform secular agenda.”
“We are trying to persuade them … but if they do not follow the central guidelines, we will be left with no option but to de-recognize the orphanages run by them and shift the children to other places,” Gandhi said.
Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) Secretary Veerendra Mishra told Hindustan Times that though the sisters do not want to adopt out children to separated or divorced parents, “it’s the rule, and they will have to abide by it. We told them there is a no reason to refuse a single parent who is eligible … Why deny a good home to a child where there are such a large number of children in orphanages waiting to be adopted?”
Officially, the sisters have asked the government to deregister 13 orphanages from adoption services in the country.
The sisters also disagree with new government rules giving prospective parents six babies to “choose” from. “Mother [Teresa]’s idea was adoption to counter abortion. When a woman gives birth to a baby, is she allowed a choice?” Sister Amala rhetorically asked The Indian Express. “She gets what God gifts her. Here too… we match the baby as per the parents’ background, skin color, etc. … We cannot allow parents one option out of six to adopt children.”
Adoption is rare in India, because of societal taboos and government red tape. The Telegraph newspaper estimates that there are 20 million orphans, but less than 0.04 percent of abandoned children were adopted through official agencies. According to The Indian Express, there are over 9,000 parents waiting to adopt but only 800 children are free for adoption.
The Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.” The order consists of over 4,501 religious sisters in 133 countries.
Sister missionaries minister to people suffering from AIDS, the mentally ill, abandoned children, and lepers. They have schools for street children, and run soup kitchens. There are nineteen Missionaries of Charity homes in Calcutta for women, orphaned children, and the dying. Care is provided freely to people regardless of their religion or social caste.
Sisters of the order live a simple lifestyle without television or radio. Their individual possessions include three saris (one to wear, one to wash, one to mend); two or three cotton habits; a girdle; a pair of sandals; a crucifix; and a rosary. They also have a plate, a set of cutlery, a cloth napkin, a canvas bag, and a prayer book. In cold countries, nuns may own a cardigan or a coat, and closed shoes.