Bangalore, India, Jul 29, 2011 / 00:16 am
A British Catholic religious sister, compared to Mother Teresa for her three decades of work with leprosy victims, says she'll remain in India indefinitely now that her visa troubles are resolved.
On July 27, Indian Home Affairs Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram announced that 63-year-old Sister Jacqueline Jean McEwan, known as “Sister Jean,” can “stay as long as she likes.” He said the government's previous order, which would have forced her to leave on one week's notice, was “a mistake, presumably based on the grounds that complete documents had not been submitted.”
“There is no meaning in going back to U.K. when my people are here,” Sr. Jean told the Times of India on July 25, declaring her intention to remain in Bangalore among her “own kith and kin … those inflicted with leprosy.”
On July 26 she told Britain's Daily Mail that she felt “overjoyed and very confident that I would live here forever,” after receiving an initial one-month reprieve that was extended indefinitely the next day.