Italian Nun Expelled from Iran After Devoting 26 Years to Leprosy Patients

The Iranian government has expelled an Italian nun from the Vatican Church who served for 26 years at the “Baba Baghee” leprosy hospital in Tabriz and had been retired for the past few years.

According to Vatican News, 75-year-old Italian nun Giuseppina Berti dedicated more than one-third of her life to helping leprosy patients in Iran, and over the past four years since her retirement, she lived in the “Daughters of Charity” convent of the Catholic Church in Isfahan.

The report adds that the Iranian government did not renew Ms. Berti’s residence permit: “Fabiola Vise,” another 77-year-old nun living in the Daughters of Charity convent, managed to obtain permission to remain in Iran for another year. This nun also dedicated 38 years of her life to helping the needy and sick in Iran.

Vatican News writes that the Iranian government’s action will make the situation more difficult for Ms. Vise, who is now forced to remain alone in the Isfahan convent.

The report states that over the past few years, Italian nuns have essentially had no activities outside the convent, and it is unclear why the Iranian government did not renew Ms. Berti’s residence permit and asked her to leave the country.

The Islamic Republic has always held an unfavorable view of other religions and even non-Twelver Shiite sects, and in recent years there have been many reports of arrests and trials of Christian missionaries, even death sentences.

Source: Radio Farda