Mumbai (AsiaNews) - The Mumbai local government has presented a notice of expropriation to the landowner of the Cardinal Gracias Destitute 's Home, a hospice for the sick and dying of the Missionaries of Charity. The administration is demanding 3.5 m2 for the purpose of widening the road, in order to ease traffic congestion in the area. However, activists and the women religious explain the traffic problem is in the area around the station, and not that close to the house.
"The Cardinal Gracias Destitute 's Home - Mother Superior, Sr. Praxi, told AsiaNews - is currently housing 70 women. The land expropriation would destroy chapel dedicated to the Virgin, eight trees and a cistern. Moreover, it would also reduce the entrance passage for the ambulance".
The structure belongs to the Church of the Sacred Heart . "Already in 1983 - Fr. Vernon Aguilar, explains to AsiaNews - the church gave 58 m2 of land to widen the road. A 150 year old Crucifix is located in the site that the administration wants to acquire".
Msgr Nereus Rodrigues, a close associate of Mother Teresa and the Sacred Heart parish in the past, spoke to AsiaNews about the value of this house to the city of Mumbai: "The Cardinal Gracias Destitute 's Home was opened May 24, 1962 , on the feast Mary Help of Christians. The land on which it stands is a gift of the Church, which is still the legal 'owner'. Mother Teresa frequently came to visit and had a special bond with this house".