Preparations for Mother Teresa’s canonisation tomorrow

Kolkata, Sep 3 (PTI) Mother Teresa will be declared asaint by Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church in acanonisation ceremony in Vatican City tomorrow in the presenceof over a lakh of her followers from all over the world. From India, a 12-member central delegation led byExternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and two stategovernment-level delegations from Delhi and West Bengal led byChief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee,respectively, will be in attendance during the function. Nuns at the Missionaries of Charity, founded by the lateNobel laureate nun, said the canonisation in Rome will have aspecial universal significance because of the Mother’spopularity. A group of around 40-50 nuns from different parts of thecountry will be present at the ceremony led by Missionaries ofCharity Superior General Sister Mary Prema. Besides Archbishop of Kolkata Thomas D’Souza, about 45bishops from all over India are now in Vatican. In March, Pope Francis had announced that the Mother, whospent 45 years serving the poor and sick on the streets inKolkata, will be elevated to sainthood after the Churchrecognised two miracles attributed to her after her death. To mark the occasion a series of events are being held inthe city where the Mother lived and worked all her life. At the Mother House here tomorrow, a special mass will beorganised and the nuns have promised to celebrate the occasionwith the poorest of the poor. In 2003, Teresa was beatified by then Pope John Paul IIin a fast-tracked process which is the first step to gainingSainthood. In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised a miracle shewas said to have carried out after her death, namely the 1998healing of a Bengali tribal woman, Monika Besra, who wassuffering from an abdominal tumour. The traditional canonisation procedure requires at leasttwo miracles. The second miracle was from Brazil, where a person hadbeen healed miraculously as a result of her earlier prayers.PTI NIK MMSMN