Pope hails volunteers on eve of Mother Teresa sainthood

O’Malley said he first met Mother Teresa, who dedicated her life to helping the poor in India and elsewhere, when he taught at the Catholic University of America and she visited the campus.

She was on a short walkway toward a structure in the complex when I approached her for an “ambush interview” or an unscheduled talk.

“Even in popular culture she’s identified with goodness, kindness, charity”, said Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the MoC priest who campaigned for her sainthood.

Pope Francis in December approved the miracle after Vatican doctors and theologians determined that Andrino’s cure was medically inexplicable and due to the intercession of Mother Teresa, the final step needed to canonize the nun.

One of Mother Teresa’s most vocal critics, the late British-born author Christopher Hitchens, accused her of exacerbating the plight of the poor with her staunch opposition to contraception and abortion.

However, Mother Teresa’s legacy has been criticized.

“We don’t have to prove that saints were flawless, because no one is ideal”, he said. Basiling Rosales and a nun from a local office of the Missionary of Charity – the famous special halo-halo and pancit palabok from the family-owned restaurant.

At the Chapel of Holy Relics in Tabor Hill, Talamban, Cebu City, strands of hair, blood-soaked cotton and a piece from the habit of Mother Teresa is publicly exposed for the veneration of the faithful, said Fr. Dennis Duene Ruiz, OAD, the chapel’s founding chaplain said.

Generosa was an active parishioner and a supporter of the Missionaries of Charity.

“Mother Teresa used to carry me to church every Sunday and she personally supervised my treatment when I underwent surgeries and rehabilitation to get rid of polio”, Lewis, now a pilot in London, told AFP. The child later recovered. She was beatified by the late pope, St. John Paul II, on October 19, 2003, just six years after her death, waiving the three years waiting period.

Some former volunteers say her order glorifies pain and poverty and accuse it of delivering bare-bones care, despite receiving millions of dollars in donations.

But Aroup Chatterjee, a British doctor born in the city formerly known as Calcutta, said that “her whole emphasis was propagation of her faith at any cost”.

“She provided dignity and respect to those who had been defeated by life”.

According to the President, Mother Teresa believed that giving something of our self conferred real joy and the person allowed to give was the one who received the most precious gift. She was wearing her white sari with blue trimmings and a pair of sandals. In her right arm was a bundle wrapped in a piece of cloth measuring about a square foot. He asked her how she was feeling. “I did not smile but deep inside I was amazed by her simplicity”, Cruz said.