Applause erupted in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome Sunday morning as Pope Francis finished pronouncing the rite of canonization for Mother Teresa – elevating her to sainthood.
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The revered nun was elevated to Roman Catholicism’s celestial pantheon in a canonization mass in St. Peter’s Square presided over by Pope Francis in the presence of 100,000 pilgrims.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, will read a brief biography of Mother Teresa and ask Pope Francis in the name of the church to canonize her.
As if to emphasise the point, Francis repeated the line “the crimes of poverty they themselves created”.
Mother Teresa in 1979 received a Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work.
In his homily at Mass, the Pope called Mother Teresa an “emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life” and held her up as a “model of holiness” for today’s generation.
The non-Catholics, the Hindus, they call her “the living saint”.
Still by declaring her a saint, the Vatican has ensured Mother Teresa will be remembered for generations to come.
But she was also regarded with scorn by secular critics, who accused her of being more concerned with evangelism than with improving the lot of the poor.
For someone who was known to show great humility, her trip to Ipswich resembled a Royal visit, and every step appears to have been captured for posterity.
For Mother Teresa, her good deeds have been recognized for her years of service as founder of the Missionaries of Charity sisterhood.
Pope Francis called Mother Teresa “a tireless worker of mercy” in a year he has proclaimed as a Jubilee Year to celebrate the theme of mercy. She founded the Missionaries of Charity group, whose influence spread to over 130 countries and included of over 4,000 sisters who helped run soup kitchens all over the world.
“Mother Teresa gave up her privileged position and all her possessions to live as one of the world’s poor and forgotten and to bring them the light of Christ and the love of God”, Gomez wrote.
Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was a tiny Albanian woman born an Ottoman citizen in 1910, in Skopje.
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Today, nuns and priests continue her order’s work around the world. Soon thereafter, John Paul placed her on the fast-track for sainthood.
