“We declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a Saint”, the Pope said to a roar from the thousands gathered at St. Peter’s Square here, including many Indians who held or waved the Indian flag. While that is a huge number, it is less than half of the 300,000 who turned out for her 2003 beatification celebrated by St. John Paul II. Pope Francis praised the new saint for her life’s work in caring for outcasts and marginal people.
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“In recognition of Mother Teresa’s selfless and dedicated services, a grateful nation conferred on her India’s highest civilian award “Bharat Ratna” in 1980″, he said. Not only the sisters who are in contact but all kinds of religion – even the people who did not believe in God – when they come in contact with Mother, something happens to them because she’s so tender, so loving. The Pope’s words couldn’t have rung truer than when he said Saint Teresa had shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created”.
“I was moved by Mother Teresa’s works, and moved by this ceremony”. Clutching a picture of Teresa to her heart, she said: “It is wonderful that she has been canonised”. Hundreds of nuns hailing from Missionaries of Charity religious order Mother Teresa had founded in 1950 also witnessed the canonization. The joyful celebratory atmosphere in the Vatican was mirrored in Kolkata, where candles and flowers were laid on Teresa’s tomb at the headquarters of her order.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta at a pro-life meeting on July 13, 1986 in Bonn, Germany. Two apparent cures of sick people have been attributed to her. Later they were Francis’s guests for a giant pizza lunch served by nuns and priests. But she said the word “mother” also “feels very important”, if not quite equal.
“Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness!”
The worldwide jubilation as Mother Teresa was ordained Saint Teresa of Calcutta is a genuine tribute to the Nobel Peace Prize victor having become one of the most influential women in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
For many, Mother Teresa is somehow more relatable – her light and love transcending cultures and generations.
“That led her to identify as “the poorest of the poor” children who were not yet born and whose existence was threatened”, Cardinal Parolin said.
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The staunchly pro-life nun was not a stranger to controversy during her lifetime, when some criticized her for poor conditions at the clinics she ran in spite of millions in donations.
