RELIGION-INDIA: Mother Teresa on Fast Track to Sainthood

By Sujoy Dhar Reprint | | Print |

Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India, Jun 10 2001 (IPS) - At 92, Fr Edward Le Joly may well live to see the beatification and even the canonisation of Mother Teresa, who died nearly four years ago.

As the ‘spiritual father’ of Mother Teresa’s congregation and the only surviving priest who was with her from the day the hugely successful Missionaries of Charity (MoC) order was founded in 1949, he naturally has a special interest in the lengthy process.

“Rome goes about (its work) slowly, but surely. They don’t go for speed. They go for certainty. And they are right,” the Belgian- born Roman Catholic priest said.

But like others associated with the Albanian-born nun during her lifetime, this wisened, freckle-faced priest who spends his days in the infirmary of St. Xavier’s College in this eastern Indian metropolis is certain of Mother Teresa’s eventual canonisation.

“Mother Teresa lived and worked here. She worked among the poorest of poor. So it was decided to have a case of miracle and I have been examined to comment on her work,” Fr. Joly said.

But the priest was only one of a hundred-odd witnesses who deposed before the Vatican’s Tribunal armed with a 300-point questionnaire on the virtues, holiness and defects as part of the Albanian-born nun’s beatification and canonisation process.

The tribunal has also pored over thousands of documents, writings, books, letters and communications relating to the revered missionary as part of the inquiry into her reputation.

Long before the Vatican initiated the process of her canonisation millions of people around the world began regarding Mother Teresa as living saint. She was lavished honours — including the Nobel prize in 1979 for her work in this heartless and bustling eastern Indian metropolis.

The nun in the white sari with the blue border spoke of simple truths, faith in prayer, love and peace but was accused of “religious imperialism” and of accepting donations from the Haitian dictator Baby Doc Duvalier.

She also believed that that AIDS was divine retribution for sexual misconduct and opposed contraception in a country of one billion people, bursting at the seams with runaway population growth.

While all these are sure to have been noted by the tribunal, what speeds her on her path to sainthood is the enormous reputation earned during her lifetime of hard work among “the poorest of the poor” and especially the “alleged miracles” associated with her.

Archbishop of Kolkata Henry D’Souza says Mother Teresa could be beatified sooner than expected and be on the fast track to sainthood.

In fact, her canonisation could turn out to be one of the fastest in modern history with the work of collecting evidence and instances miracles in this part of the world now almost done.

“The Diocesan Enquiry or the tribunal, set up two years ago to investigate the life and virtues of Mother Teresa, has collected evidence of a miracle, one of the requirements for beatification, and the same would be officially disclosed at St Mary Church on August 15, after which it would be sent to Rome,” the archbishop said.

While the archbishop refused to disclose the miracle selected for investigation, according to sources close to him, it is the case of the healing of a tribal girl (of an indigenous community called the Santhals) at Raigunj in West Bengal state.

Sources said a few years ago, the girl returned home from work with a severe stomach ache which refused to subside. She was taken to a doctor and later diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her stomach.

The poor Santhali family could ill-afford the treatment, and the tumor grew to an enormous size protruding from one side of her abdomen.

When all hopes ended, the young girl and her family prayed to Mother Teresa and miraculously, it worked.

The “extraordinary phenomenon” which foxed medical doctors presented a perfect case of a ‘favour’ required by the Catholic Church to declare a person, first a blessed soul (beatified), and eventually a saint (canonised).

Countless other reports of ‘favours’ received by people after praying to the Catholic nun have been are pouring into the MoC headquarters here from all over the world.

But the Diocesan inquiry looking for causes for beatification of Mother Teresa has chosen to report the Raigunj ‘miracle’ to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican, the source said.

“Everyday, Mother House (the MoC headquarters) is receiving calls from various parts of the world about the acts of Mother’s miracles,” says Sister Lynn of the MoC.

“But we have taken an oath of secrecy. We cannot disclose the details. We have conclusive proof of miracles and these will be disclosed on the day of the concluding ceremony of the tribunal’s inquiry,” she adds.

The choice of the right ‘miracle’ was a hard task for the Diocesan inquiry team, or the tribunal. The case of a French lady from Bordeaux with terminal leukaemia getting completely cured after praying to Mother Teresa was strong as well.

But eventually, the tribunal settled in favour of the Santhali girl’s instance as Mother lived and worked here.

The church does not recognise a miracle unless there is clinching physical evidence of it defying logical explanation. A medical miracle to be accepted by the Church will have to be vetted by a doctor as beyond the comprehension of medical science.

Technically, after beatification is ordered by the Pope, which will mean Mother Teresa will be recognised as a blessed soul, one more step will remain for bestowing of sainthood on her. Once beatification is ordered, the canonisation process can start. This involves the exercise of looking for a second miracle.

Past experience has been that it could take up to 20 years for even beatification to be ordered after confirmation of the first miracle.

But Mother Teresa is an exception and the whole process of her sainthood was initiated just about a year after her death on Sep. 5, 1997, dispensing with the mandatory five-year waiting period.

She is expected to be beatified in two years’ time though sainthood could still take a decade.

Mother Teresa is the fourth person from India to be considered for sainthood after Sister Alphonse and Father Elias Chavera of Kerala and Father Joseph Vaz of Goa. None of them has been declared a saint yet.

But Mother Teresa’s ‘stature’ and, as Postulator Brian Kolodiejchuk puts it, “her solid reputation during her lifetime itself”, makes the Albanian nun’s case extraordinary.

Meanwhile, nearly four years after Mother Teresa’s passing away, the Missionaries of Charity sisters remain deeply committed to their work with the poorest of the poor, attracting the people to their way of life and opening new homes across the globe.

Even without the magnetic presence of Mother Teresa, celebrities, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, continue to visit the homes run by the MoC from its headquarters in central Kolkata.

“After all we have Mother’s tomb here,” says Sister Nirmala, who was elected the superior general by the order’s nuns in a secret ballot six months before Mother Teresa died on September 1997.

Though for the moment, world attention is focused on Mother Teresa’s canonisation process, the work of the order of more than 4,000 nuns around the world, including new ones in Islamic countries like Kazakhstan, goes on.

“We have now not only God to look upon us, but also Mother is there taking care of us from above,” says Sister Nirmala.