Mother Teresa Set For Sainthood
Pope Francis cleared the way for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint after approving a miracle attributed to her prayer.
Mother Teresa is best known for her care and support of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 but her approval for sainthood is credited to a miracle that occurred in 2008.
According to Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic bishops' conference, Pope Francis approved the findings of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
It cited the healing of a Brazilian man with a brain infection and kidney disease had been due to the intercession of Mother Teresa.
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, who is presenting Mother Teresa's case for canonization, said in a statement this week, that 30 minutes after the man was to undergo surgery, he woke out of a coma and did not have any pain. The surgery did not take place and a day later the man was declared to be sympton-free.
"With her work, she was always the symbol of mercy, not just with words but with her actions," said the superior general of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, the Rev. Sebastian Vazhakala.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Catholic Church normally requires one "medical" miracle before a deceased Catholic can be declared "blessed," and another such miracle, occurring after that declaration, before he or she can be canonized as a saint.
The Vatican did not set a date for the canonization, but it could possibly take place the first week of September 2016 which to coincides with the 19th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death and during Francis' Holy Year of Mercy.
