Mother Teresa sainthood: Missionaries of Charity overjoyed
An overjoyed Missionaries of Charity is planning an all-faith prayer after the pope recognised a second miracle attributed to the late Mother Teresa, clearing the path for the Nobel-winning nun to be elevated to sainthood next year.
An overjoyed Missionaries of Charity is planning an all-faith prayer after the pope recognised a second miracle attributed to the late Mother Teresa, clearing the path for the Nobel-winning nun to be elevated to sainthood next year.
Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, was beatified in 2003 by the late Pope John Paul. Beatification, which requires one miracle, is the last step before sainthood.
The official Catholic newspaper in Rome, Avvenire, said on Thursday the second miracle attributed to the intervention of Mother Teresa, which is required for canonisation, involved the inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumours in 2008.
“We are overjoyed. We knew it would happen, but we did not expect it to happen so soon. In some cases it took even centuries to know about these miracles,” Missionaries of Charity spokesperson Sunita Kumar told HT.
“Missionaries of Charity received a communication from the Vatican that a second miracle has been accepted by the pope. In the next few months we expect the canonisation to take place,” she said.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee congratulated the Missonaries of Charity. “Just heard the good news that Blessed Mother Teresa will be made a Saint in 2016. My best wishes to Missionaries of Charity on this joyous occasion,” she tweeted.
Her party MP Derek O’Brien said, “Mother Teresa’s sainthood is a moment of remembrance and thanksgiving. To me, her greatest miracle was the service she rendered to the poor.”