Thousands of pilgrims thronged St. Peter’s Square for the canonisation of Mother Teresa, the tiny nun who cared for the world’s most unwanted and became the icon of a Catholic Church.
Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint at a Sunday morning Mass, making her the model of his Jubilee Year of Mercy and in some ways his entire papacy. For Pope Francis, Mother Teresa put into action his ideal for the church to be a merciful “field hospital” for the poorest of the poor both materially and spiritually.
Ceremony concludes. Pope Francis leaves after offering prayers to those missionaries who died in service of the Catholic faith.
Even Pope Francis is finding it hard to call Mother Teresa “St. Teresa”.
Deviating from his homily on Sunday, Pope Francis acknowledged it’ll be hard for admirers to make the switch since Mother Teresa’s saintliness is “so close to us”.
As the crowd erupted in applause, he said: “So tender and rich that spontaneously we will continue to say Mother Teresa.”
AFP reports: Mother Teresa could come across as an ascetic figure and as a strict task-mistress to those under her. "She spoke her mind," Pope Francis recalled in 2014. "I would have been a little bit scared had she been my Mother Superior."
But in his homily at her canonisation mass, Pope Francis hailed her as beacon for the world. She was, he said, "an eloquent witness to God's closeness to the poorest of the poor."
Those who knew her best describe someone who loved fun, chocolate and icecream.
Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, a member of her Order who promoted her sainthood cause within the Vatican, told AFP that Mother Teresa would often be found bent over in laughter while discussing the day's events with fellow nuns.
"You felt that she was a mother," he said. "She was not very good at telling jokes but she had a sense of humour and could really find the funny aspects in ... daily life."
During his homily, Pope Francis said, “Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded.”
To the many volunteers in Rome for the Jubilee for Volunteers and Workers of Mercy, Pope Francis offered St. Teresa of Calcutta as a “model of holiness”.
Even as the solemn canonisation ceremony is underway in Vatican City, members of the Darjeeling branch of the Lay Missionaries of Charity (LMC) took an 8-km ride on the iconic Darjeeling toy train to retrace the trip Mother Teresa took on September 10, 1946. During the journey to Darjeeling in the toy train, the Mother received the “call within the call” within her soul and the course of her life was decided, Father Peter Lingdam, LMC’s Darjeeling Branch Director said.
“We wished to experience what Mother Teresa must have felt during that time of September 10, 1946 when she got the ’call within the call’ during her trip from the plains (NJP—Siliguri) to Darjeeling and her life’s course changed forever,” Father Lingdam said.
LMC is an International Association of ‘lay persons’ (married and single) adhering to the Spirit of the Missionaries of Charity.
Pope Francis praises Mother Teresa as the merciful saint who defended the lives of the unborn, sick and abandoned and who shamed world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created”.
The Pope holds St. Teresa up as a model for today’s Christians during his homily for the nun who cared for the “poorest of the poor”. Speaking from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said St. Teresa spent her life “bowing down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their god-given dignity.”
Pope Francis addresses the faithful after declaring Mother Teresa a saint. For the Pope, Mother Teresa put into action his ideal of the church as a merciful “field hospital” for the poorest of the poor, those suffering both material and spiritual poverty. By canonising her during his Jubilee Year of Mercy, he in some ways is making her the icon of his entire pontificate.
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