(UCAN): Sister Rosela Nuthangi and Sister Ann Frida of the Missionaries of Charity, from Mizoram state, India, have chosen to remain in Ukraine, where they have been serving, to help the people in the midst of the Russian invasion of the country.
A note from Father Felix Anthony, the public relations officer of the North East Regional Bishops’ Council in India, said that the two expressed their “decision to stay on in Ukraine, risking their lives to serve people fleeing the war and the injured.”
The note said that Sister Prema, the superior general of Missionaries of Charity, had contacted nuns on March 2 and asked them to move to a safer place, but they told her that they preferred to remain in Ukraine “to help the people in whichever way possible.”
It said, “The sisters have informed their relatives of their safety in spite of the challenging times.”
Sister Nuthangi is the second woman to become a nun from Mizoram. She made her first religious profession in 1984 and was sent to the then USSR as a missionary. She worked in Moscow’s St. Petersburg for 10 years and mastered Russian. She then worked in Latvia, Astonovia and, in 2017, she moved to Ukraine.
Sister Frida’s family is based in Mizoram’s capital city, Aizawl. She became a nun in 1998 and worked in India for a few years, before being sent to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
“I am not surprised that two women religious of the Missionaries of Charity who are working in the war-ravaged Ukraine are not leaving the country in spite of the great danger to their lives,” said Archbishop John Moolachira, the President of the North East Regional Bishops’ Council.
He said they showed no interest the Indian government plan to evacuate its citizens.
