Most Indians considered her their own, despite the fact that she was born to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in what is now part of Macedonia, Nesan said.
Advertisement
Prem Kaliea remembers meeting Mother Teresa and how his town welcomed her.
“I am so proud to be from Kolkata”, said Sanjay Sarkar, a high school student on hand for the celebration. “The church was full, the galleries were full, there were thousands of people on the streets outside”, said Monsignor Stephen Churchwell, who was pastor at Sacred Heart back in 1995 when Mother Teresa visited. Traditionally, there is a mandatory five-year waiting period before formal evaluation of a candidate for beatification can begin.
The Year of Mercy, and September, in particular, aligns perfectly with the canonization of Mother Teresa. Pope Francis has raised eyebrows with some rule-breaking beatifications and canonizations, waiving the need for miracles and canonizing more people in a single clip – more than 800 15th-century martyrs – than John Paul did in his 26-year pontificate (482).
The Mayor of Ahmedabad, Gautam Shah paid Sharadhanjali to Saint Mother Teresa at Mother Teresa Chowk, Bhadra.
“They being near to God brought a special awakening in me and I have stopped all that”, he told IANS. Who knows better what that is like but mothers?
“We may have some difficulty in calling her “Saint Teresa”, the pontiff said”.
In his homily, Pope Francis recalled the new saint as “committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable”. The day is observed as a feast day of Mother Teresa by the Catholic Church all over the world and as the “International Day of Charity” by the United Nations.
Several nuns from the Missionaries of Charity were in attendance, wearing the trademark white and blue saris.
She died on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87 and was beatified by the Holy See in October 2003. The guests came from shelters run by the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa, in the cities of Milan, Bologna, Florence and Naples.
“She is witness to mercy and holiness, and one who inspires me in my spiritual life and in my ministry of service”, Gomez wrote.
Advertisement
However, Mother Teresa’s legacy has been criticized. Once a month, I celebrate Mass at Gift of Peace House here in Washington, a home for those with AIDS and other illnesses who are cared for at the Missionaries of Charity convent. And some doctors claim Besra was healed by modern medicine, not by prayer. Her order has offices in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australia, as well as Hong Kong and Russian Federation.
