KOLKATA, India — The head of the Missionaries of Charity congregation remains unwilling to compromise on its blue-stripped white-cotton sari, the trademark habit of the congregation prescribed by founder St. Teresa of Calcutta, in order to open a home in China. 

“We have the green signal to open a house in China. But they are insisting that we should give up our habit. We cannot do that,” Sister Mary Joseph, superior general of the congregation, told the Register in an exclusive interview on Sept. 6 at the congregation’s motherhouse in Kolkata. 

Sister Mary, who was elected in March as the fourth superior general to head the congregation with more than 5,000 nuns worldwide serving in 139 countries, said this when discussing  Mother’s Teresa’s “dream” of entering China. 

In a 1995 Register interview with this correspondent, Mother Teresa disclosed her desire for her congregation to enter China. “Yes, I went to Beijing, and we are going to open a house there by Easter,” she said. 

Sister Mary explained the stumbling block to fulfilling Mother Teresa’s dream during an hour-long interview that discussed the circumstances of the Missionaries of Charity (MCs) the quarter-century since the death of their foundress on Sept. 5, 1997. 

“We are deeply grateful to God for the blessings during the last 25 years since Mother died,” she said. “It has been a gospel of life carrying on the mandate Mother has entrusted us.”  

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