t eanc 0 VOL. 41, NO. 35
4t
Friday, September 12, 1997
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
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Our Mother Teresa: Something beautiful for God By CHRISTINE VIEIRA MILLS ANCHOR STAFF WITH CNS REPORTS
1910 - 1997
Responding to news of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta September 5, of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, not only for the faithful but Bishop Sean O'Malley held a press conference that afternoon for local for the whole world." media. The bishop offered a moving tribute for the woman many U.S. President Bill Clinton called her "one of the giants of called a "living saint." our time" who "showed us the stunning power of simple huHe spoke of the first time he had met Mother Teresa, founder mility." of the Missionary Sisters of Charity, a religious order of nuns. In India, government leaders expressed their sorrow "I was a young friar teaching at Catholic University in and said Mother Teresa would be remembered for her Washington, D.C., in the late sixties when I first met commitment to the poor. Mother Teresa," the bishop said, welling up with emo"Words fail me to express my sorrow," said Prime tion several times during his statement. "I had no idea Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, calling the Nobellauwho she was." reate "an apostle of peace and love." As the bishop spoke, the story unfolded about a Even after health problems led Mother Teresa petite nun who would wheel those people dying in to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charithe streets of India to an abandoned temple where ties in 1990, her order re-elected her as superior, and she continued traveling at a pace that her sisters would bathe them, pray with them and allow them to die in dignity. would have tired people half her age. It was not until March 12 of this year, after health About 50 people heard her message that day problems that recurred more frequently, that of the bishop's first encounter with Mother the Missionaries of Charity elected her sucTeresa 30 years ago, but as the years passed her message of love and respect for the poor cessor. Despite calls on her time from all over and destitute came to be heard by millions. the globe to found new convents, speak at Last Sunday, Bishop O'Malley offered a international gatherings or receive some special Mass of remembrance for Mother new honor for her work, she always reTeresa at St. Lawrence Church, New Bedford, turned to India to be with those she loved where she had visited her congregation in most - the lonely, abandoned, homeless, 1995. Several diocesan priests concelebrated disease-ravaged, dying, "poorest of the the Mass and the full church also welcomed poor" in Calcutta's streets. three of Mother's Missionaries of Charity who When Mother Teresa received the reside and work in the New Bedford area. Also Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, Dec. present were many of the volunteers and their 10, 1979, she accepted it "in the name of families that help the sisters in their ministry. the hungry, of the naked, of the homeless, Music for the Mass was provided by the of the blind, of the lepers, of all those who combined choirs of Our Lady of Mount Carmel feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for and St. Lawrence the Martyr parishes of New throughout society." Bedford. In her acceptance speech, she condemned The world mourns abortion as the world's greatest destroyer of As India prepared to hold a state funeral for people. the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta, church and "To me, the nations who have legalized aborworld leaders joined in a global outpouring of praise tion are the poorest nations," she said. "They are for her love of the world's poor and outcast. afraid ofthe unborn child, and the child must die." Mother Teresa, 87, died of cardiac arrest Sept. 5 at In recent years, her health began deteriorating the Calcutta motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charand in 1996 she had four hospitalizations: a broken ityorder. collarbone; a head injury from a fall; cardiac probIn a Sept. 6 telegram to Sister Nirmala Joshi, who SllClems, malaria and a lung infection; and for angioplasty ceeded Mother Teresa as superior general of the order, Pope to remove blockages in two of her major arteries. John Paul II said, "I give fervent thanks to God, who gave Then in late January of this year, her spiritual adviser, this woman of unshakable faith as a gift to the church and to Jesuit Father Edward Ie Joly, said, "She is dying, she is on the world in order to remind us all of the supremacy of evangelioxygen." cal love, especially when it is expressed in humble service of the But Mother Teresa bounced back, traveling to Rome and the least of our brothers and sisters." United States last spring. The Indian government announced that it would Mother Teresa was born Agnes Ganxhe Bojaxhiu to Alaccord Mother Teresa a state funeral Sept. 13, with full banian parents in Skopje, in what is now the Former Yu~ve military honors begi~.nillg with a '.0 a.'!'. funeral Mass at goslavian Republic of Macedonia, on Aug. 26, 1910. the 10,000-seat NetaJI Indore StadIUm In Calcutta. .Jt-1 UJ The government declared Sept. 13 a national day of mourning and a national holiday. Turn to page 9 At the motherhouse in Calcutta, the news of Mother Teresa's death was posted on the blackboard on the chapel wall: "Our beloved Mother went home to Jesus, 5th September at 9:30 p.m." of As sisters prayed and sobbed inside the chapel the night of Sept. 5, word spread outside, 1 and hundreds, then thousands, of people poured into the rain-soaked streets of Calcutta to . '''!;' pay homage to their icon of love and hope. According to UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, Mother Teresa's remains were to be buried in an underground room at the Missionaries of Charity motherhouse. The room was being converted into a private chapel. In the United States, upon learning of the death of Mother Teresa, Bishop Anthony M. .are InPilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said "Her life was a lesson in love. Mother Teresa transcended cultures and politics. "She saw Jesus in e:veryone - from the child in the womb to the sick and vulnerable, especially those afflicted with AIDS, to the aged and dyi/lg abandoned in the streets of Calcutta," Bishop Pilla said. Archbishop Francis J. Spence of Kingston, Ontario, president of the Canadian bishops' Studio Dphoto taken during Mother Teresa's visit to the Missionaries of Charity house conference, wrote in a letter to Sister Nirmala that Mother Teresa "became a living symbol
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