Mother Teresa's Path to Sainthood
91心頭 professor calls Mother Teresa "a saint for the modern world"
This Sunday, nearly 20 years after her death, Mother Teresa will be made a saint. She is best known for founding the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, which has more than 4,500 sisters and locations in more than 130 countries, including a mission here in Denver.
Gregory Robbins, chair of 91心頭s油, says Mother Teresa was able to draw global attention to the plight of those she served. She was a Roman Catholic working in and on behalf of a non-Christian culture, Robbins says. She is a symbol of open-hearted, self-sacrificing compassion.
The process to sainthood isnt a slam dunk, Robbins explains. Once an individual is nominated for canonization and their name is admitted for consideration, a case is built. But this process cannot begin until five years after the individuals death unless, however, the waiting period is waived by the Supreme Pontiff. This was done in the case of Mother Teresa when Pope John Paul II waived three years of the period.
Arguments against canonization can be submitted as well. This is where we get the phrase devils advocate, Robbins says. In Mother Teresas case, the late writer and adamant atheist Christopher Hitchens, a longtime critic of the nun, was called by the Vatican to provide evidence against her canonization. He claimed that her intention was not to help people, but instead expand the number of Catholics. Officials responded to Hitchens criticism by saying they investigated and found no obstacle for Mother Teresas beatification, thereby bestowing on her the title Blessed.
An essential element in the next stage of the canonization process is a requirement that at least two miracles corroborate the candidates sanctity. In Mother Teresas case, the miracles approved by the Vatican included the healing of an Indian woman whose abdominal tumor disappeared after a Miraculous Medal that had been touched to Mother Teresas body was placed on the womans stomach. The other miracle involved a Brazilian man whose wife prayed to Mother Teresa when he was suffering from a bacterial infection. He made a full recovery and went on to have two children, which doctors had said would be impossible.
Mother Teresas canonization takes place during the Year of Mercy, a time for the Catholic Church across the world to focus on forgiveness and healing. Following canonization, she will be known as Saint Mother Teresa, the woman celebrated for this summation of her lifes work: By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.
Shes very much a saint for the modern world, Robbins says. He and other scholars expect that the canonized Mother Teresa will live large in the worlds imagination and in cultural discourse, not just because of her faith, but also because of her struggle to believe. Given that, shell be more than a plaster-of-paris saint, Robbins says, noting that her diaries reveal a decades-long, existentialist crisis of faith, an experience of what she described as Gods absence, Gods silence.