Pope Francis praised Mother Teresa’s defense of human life in his homily at her Mass of Canonization on Sunday.
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Hundreds of handmade signs littered St. Peter’s Square in support of the founder of the Missionaries of Charity order. He met her in Calcutta while volunteering for one of Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.
“Her heart, she gave it to the world”, said Charlotte Samba, a 52-year-old mother of three who travelled with a church group from Gabon for the Mass. “Mercy, forgiveness, good works: It is the heart of a mother for the poor”.
“I think that maybe we will have some difficulty calling her ‘Saint Teresa, ‘ that in spontaneity, we will continue to say ‘mother Teresa, ‘” Pope Francis said.
When the Litany of the Saints was read during the canonization ceremony, it was clear that over the centuries, the church had sainted far more men than women. This was how Mother Teresa was considered by Sister Adline Grace who runs the local chapter of the Missions of Charity, the worldwide volunteer organisation which is dedicated to serving the poor, disabled and outcast of society.
The ceremony came nearly 19 years after Teresa’s death in Kolkata, the Indian city where she spent nearly 40 years tending to the poorest of the poor. He expedited the process and approved her first miracle after her 1997 death.
Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
But Pope John Paul II, who met her often, had no doubt about her eligibility for sainthood which made him put her on the route to canonisation two years after her death instead of the usual five. After the mass, they were to be Francis’s guests at the Vatican for a giant pizza lunch served by 250 sisters and 50 male members of the order.
The ceremony came a day before the 19th anniversary of Teresa’s death in Kolkata, the Indian city where she spent almost four decades tending to the poorest of the poor.
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The church will also adopt the most recent spelling of the city, Kolkata making the official new name, “Saint Teresa of Kolkata”. Like she was such a positive person. She was beatified in 2003, a key step to sainthood.
