In a unifying gesture, the pope highlighted aspects of the new saint’s legacy appealing to opposite sides of a fractious divide: Catholics who champion traditional moral teachings and those focused on economic justice.
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Still by declaring her a saint, the Vatican has ensured Mother Teresa will be remembered for generations to come.
Mother Teresa is well known the world over as the nun who worked with the dying and destitute of Kolkata.
Volunteers following orders from pizza maker Vincenzo Staiano and nuns from the sisterhood started by Saint Teresa, Missionaries of Charity, helped to hand out the authentic Italian pies.
Sunday, more than 5,000 miles away from St. Peter’s Square, hundreds of people packed the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Francis said St Theresa shamed world leaders for their “crimes of poverty”.
She was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in what is now part of Macedonia, and was given the baptismal name of Agnes. It’s been 19 years since her death.
Following the Mass, Gomez blessed and opened a chapel dedicated to Mother Teresa, where photographs and stories of her visits to Los Angeles will be displayed, as well as the relic, pieces of her hair in the form of a cross, for public veneration.
After doing iconic work in the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata) that won universal acclaim, she died in 1997 at the age of 87.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910, Mother Teresa set up her Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Kolkata in 1950 and made her headquarters in the Indian city for almost half a century.
“She is just the epitome of goodness and kindness and something to strive for”, said Marites Salazar, who attended Sunday service. The past week also marked 100 years since the birth of the greatest humanitarian. Catholic priests say she is one of the quickest saints to be canonized in history.
The Mayor of Ahmedabad, Gautam Shah paid Sharadhanjali to Saint Mother Teresa at Mother Teresa Chowk, Bhadra.
“Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa are the church figures I admire and love most and in some way all three are here today”, O’Brien said.
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“She’s Mother Teresa”, Joanna Jaworowski said.
