British nun working for India’s leprosy patients gets last-minute visa extension

(July 25, 2011) India’s union home ministry has offered a one-month visa extension to a British Catholic nun who has worked among leprosy patients in the country for nearly three decades, after previously denying her a visa and preparing to force her to leave the country. 63-year-old Montfort missionary Sister Jacqueline Jean McEwan, who has worked as a volunteer in the Sumanahalli Society in Bangalore city, said the government had not given any reason for their decision. “Given a chance, I would gladly come back,” she said on Sunday. The society, founded by Claretian Father George Kannanthanam in 1978, provides care for leprosy patients and other marginalized people in southern India. The extension comes after Father Kannanthanam said on the weekend that the society would seek clarification from the ministry and plead for a new visa. Without the visa extension the nun would have to leave India by Monday evening. The society has treated more than 5,000 leprosy-afflicted patients and provided them “a dignified life” through education, training, job placement and housing,” Father Kannanthanam said.