Pope Francis loves Mother Teresa for many reasons. One in particular was the fact that she put into practice his ideal that the Church be a field hospital for the poor and the suffering, both spiritually and materially. When the Pope uttered the words that elevated
the premier missionary of charity to the position of Saint, he did so with utter reverence in the presence of world leaders, Mother Teresa’s followers at her organisation and hundreds of homeless people. Today the world acknowledges what many others have known for years, that Mother Teresa was saintly in her passion to help and heal the poor and downtrodden. She was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in what is now Macedonia. Her family
then settled in neighbouring Kosovo. It was there, in the village
of Letnica, that 18-year-old Anjezë embraced her calling.
A year later, in 1929, she was sent by her religious organisation,
the Loreto Sisters of Dublin, to India. She started teaching
in a Calcutta school, St Mary’s,
and did so for 15 years before quitting
that job and going out to work
in the service of the poor.
Mother Teresa was a revered figure
but also a mildly controversial one.
She has been accused of converting
those she helped to Christianity.
She was also accused of accepting
money for adoptions and also from
many other controversial figures across the world. But through
all that, she acted like she was taught to. She took the criticism
on the chin and persevered. All the money she received, billions
of dollars, has all gone to establish homes run by her organisation,
the Missionaries of Charity, across India and even
the world. They are now present in 130-odd countries and employ
tens of thousands of people. Money is needed to do all
that and Mother Teresa never shied away from the task. She
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979 and Indian citizenship
much before that, in 1951. She’s won numerous other awards.
But the awards are not what made Mother Teresa so blessed.
It was, what many say, her selfless work. Her legacy started in
then Calcutta and has now spread all over the world. Even in
Goa, there are those who now carry on her work, even though
they are not affiliated to the Missionaries of Charity. They do
what they can to heal the world and that is what is important.
She has inspired millions of people to do the right thing, to
help their fellow human beings.
Pope Francis rightly said that the world will still call her Mother
Teresa, not Saint Teresa. That doesn’t matter. She is canonised
now, but she has been a Saint all along. We just didn’t
know it then.
