Pope Francis however, held world powers to account “for the crimes of poverty they created”.
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Hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters had front-row seats at the Mass.
Just 106 years after her birth, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is officially a saint in the Catholic Church.
“I really feel great because it’s so hard to find people like that”, said churchgoer David Guevara. “She gave all the employees a little medallion, and we have ours hanging on the wall here”, said McKinstry.
“So many people, even of different religions, admire her”, parishioner Mary Sullivan said.
According to correspondence that came to light after she died in 1997, St. Teresa experienced what the church calls a “dark night of the soul” – a period of spiritual doubt, despair and loneliness that numerous great mystics experienced.
She “ceaselessly proclaimed that the unborn are the weakest”, he said. “She is Mother Teresa now St. Teresa, such an inspiration, not only to the church but to everyone in the world”, Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Allentown said.
With the 16th century basilica of St Peter’s and an azure sky providing the backdrop, the faithful basked in the late summer sun as Pope Francis presided over a ritual mass that has barely changed for centuries.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity and the group will host a Mass of Thanksgiving for the newly-named saint Monday at the Cathedral of Christ the King beginning around noon.
In his column in the Archdiocese’s publication Angelus News, Gomez called Mother Teresa “one of my favorite saints”.
Her canonisation on Sunday 4 August by Pope Francis at a glorious ceremony at Bernini’s colonnade in Vatican, a complex surrounded by 284 columns, 88 pilasters surmounted by 162 statues each 12 feet high, was something befitting the gods. “In 1980, India Post scripted history when it released a stamp on Mother Teresa when she was alive, making her (then) the first and only personality to be so uniquely honoured”, said Lopes.
With such a high number of people invited to the lunch, the pizza was prepared by a staff of almost 20 people who brought three of their own mobile ovens to cook in.
During his homily at mass on Sunday at Blessed Sacrament, Rev. Monsignor Peter Finn, dean of Staten Island Catholics, also spoke about Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87.
“We may have some difficulty in calling her “Saint” Teresa”, the pontiff said. Soon, Maria Theresa became known as the “saint of the gutters”.
He hopes her work, and sainthood inspires others to do good for the poor.
By historical standards, Saint Teresa has been fast-tracked to sainthood.
Achieving sainthood requires the Vatican to approve accounts of two miracles occurring as a result of prayers for Saint Teresa’s intercession.
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Monday marks 19 years since the death of Mother Teresa. One wall decoration read, “Saint Teresa of Calcutta Pray for Us”. Eight years later, Andrino and his wife Fernanda were in the congregation on Sunday.
