Saturday, Pope Francis led a prayer in St. Peter’s Square, saying Sunday we will have the joy of seeing her proclaimed a saint. 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. “She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created”, the Pontiff said.
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For the Pope, Mother Teresa is a merciful “field hospital” for the poorest of the poor, those suffering both material and spiritual poverty, an ideal for the church.
They were brought to the Vatican by bus from across Italy, to be present for Sunday’s canonisation mass, where they were given seats of honour.
Mother Teresa is officially a saint. “She’s so recent, she was really showing how we can love in our world, in our day and age”.
Sunday morning was quite the historic and emotional moment in the Catholic community as Mother Teresa joined the ranks of other saints, declared by Pope Francis. Pope Francis made the official declaration during a canonization mass held at the Vatican, where thousands of fans gathered to praise the late nun for her huge charity work.
Speaking in Latin, he declared “blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) to be a Saint… decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church”. Francis also used his sermon to recall Mother Teresa’s fervent opposition to abortion, which she termed “murder by the mother” in a controversial Nobel Peace Prize speech in 1979.
Catholic News Agency said Mother Teresa’s canonization was significant not only because it took place during the Jubilee of Mercy but also because it fell during a special September 2-4 Jubilee celebration for workers and volunteers of mercy, of whom Mother Teresa is widely considered one of the greatest. She arrived in India in 1929 as a sister of the Loreto order, and in 1946 she received what she described as a “call within a call”.
“I saw a spark of light emerge from mother’s photo and reflect on my tumor”, says Monica Besra, cured by Mother Teresa.
Meanwhile, inside Chicago’s St. John Cantius Parish on the North Side, a member of Teresa’s own Missionaries of Charity order referred to the freshly canonized saint as “Mother Teresa”.
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Mother Teresa is credited with healing an Indian woman from stomach cancer in 1998 and a Brazilian man from a brain infection in 2008.
