Of course, Indian officials must also respect the law.
And of course, nuns can make mistakes in the bookkeeping.
But it becomes problematic if officials, politicians and radical believers use laws as weapons against those who think differently.
Turning the money off to Mother Teresa's nuns in India at Christmas is more than a bitter aftertaste.
The Ministry of the Interior of Hindu nationalist Amit Shah is thus meeting the poorest of the poor and their Catholic helpers.
In India, attacks on Muslims and Christians have increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in 2014.
At the same time, his officials use supposed or real irregularities of critical organizations in the regular thicket of India to make them unable to work.
The "greatest democracy on earth", which was once founded on tolerance, is damaging its reputation.
And it makes even the geostrategically important cooperation with Americans and Europeans more and more difficult.