The Pope, on the eve of his 79th birthday on Thursday, approved the decree that the Catholic nun had performed a miracle 11 years after her death, confirmed a statement from Vatican. “Mother Teresa was saint of mercy and compassion who fully lived every moment of her life”.
Advertisement
“It surely is positive news but also quite obvious and expected – who else could be made saint if not her nowadays”, said Maria Giulia Bertani a resident in Rome.
Mother Teresa’s charity is still in operation, it has its headquarters in central Kolkata and has over 4, 500 nuns worldwide.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in the slums of the Indian city of Kolkata (Calcutta).
“Bergoglio had Mother Teresa behind him, nearby, and he heard her intervene often with great strength, without letting herself in any way be intimidated by this assembly of bishops”, Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi later recounted.
Sister Ita of the Missionaries of Charity was quoted by NBC News, “We are all absolutely delighted about the news”. We could not agree more with her being elevated to sainthood. This will likely be one of the highlights of the special Roman Catholic Church’s Holy Year of mercy.
First, a woman from Kolkata says she was cured of stomach cancer after praying to Mother Teresa, and Vatican officials said they couldn’t find any scientific explanation for her healing.
In fact it is 12 years after she was beatified for the miraculous cure of a tribal lady, Monica Besra, from Dangram in South Dinajpur district, that the Vatican today announced Mother Teresa would be canonised for the miraculous cure of a Brazilian man who developed a brain tumour.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity order of nuns there.
Mother Teresa was born in 1910 into a Kosovar Albanian family in Skopje, in what is now the Republic of Macedonia, and died in Calcutta in 1997.
Mother Teresa gave the interview to Thom O’Connor in 1985 and, though her words are well known, the footage of the interview has rarely been seen until now.
Mother Teresa’s final visit to Liverpool took place in 1996, a year before her death. She established Missionaries of Charity to serve the poorest of all.
Advertisement
She visited again in 1982 and 1983, the latter occasion being a secret visit to make peace with Liverpool City Council, then under Militant control, who wanted to close the Seel Street hostel because it said the accommodation it provided was sub-standard.
