Mother Teresa to be made Saint next year as Pope recognises second miracle
Mother Teresa, who devoted her life for the cause of the poorest of the poor, is expected to be canonised in Rome on September 4 as part the pope’s Jubilee year of mercy, The Guardian quoted Avvenire, an Italian Catholic newspaper.
The move comes after a panel of experts, convened three days ago by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, attributed a miraculous healing of a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumours to Mother Teresa.
Teresa, who was born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje in Macedonia, was known across the world for her charity work. She died in 1997 at the age of 87 in Kolkata, the city where she set up Missionaries of Charity (MoC) and had worked all her life. She won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
She was beatified by then pope John Paul II in a fast-tracked process in 2003, in a ceremony attended by some 300,000 pilgrims. Beatification is a first step towards sainthood.
In 2002, the Vatican officially recognised a miracle she was said to have carried out after her death, namely the 1998 healing of a Bengali tribal woman, Monika Besra, who was suffering from an abdominal tumour.
The traditional canonisation procedure requires at least two miracles.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, who is the postulator of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, said: "On 17 December 2015, Pope Francis approved the promulgation of the decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The case submitted by the Postulation of her Cause of Canonization concerns the miraculous healing that took place in 2008 in Santos, Brazil."
According to the statement, the various treatments undertaken were not effective, and thus his condition continuously worsened.
"Meanwhile, from March 2008, the patient’s wife continuously sought the intercession of Blessed Mother Teresa for her husband. To her own prayers of intercession were joined those of her relatives, friends, and the parish priest, all of whom were praying for a miraculous cure through the intercession of Mother Teresa."
The statement said: "On this same day, 9 December 2008, when the patient entered into serious crisis and had to be taken for an emergency operation, intensified prayers were addressed to Blessed Teresa for his recovery. Precisely between the hours of 18.10 and 18.40 the patient’s wife went to her parish church, and along with the pastor, turned to Blessed Teresa begging with greater determination the cure of her dying husband."
"At 18.40 the neurosurgeon returned to the operating room and found the patient inexplicably awake and without pain. The patient asked the doctor, “what I am doing here?” The next morning, December 10, 2008,when examined at 7.40 the patient was fully awake and without any headache; he was asymptomatic with normal cognition."
"The patient, now completely healed, resumed his work as a mechanical engineer without any particular limitation. In addition, it should be emphasized that despite the tests that showed a state of sterility due to the intense and prolonged immunosuppression and antibiotics, the couple have two healthy children born in 2009 and 2012."
On 10 September of this year, the medical commission voted unanimously that the cure is inexplicable in the light of present-day medical knowledge.
"The date of the canonization will be officially announced in the next Consistory of Cardinals," said Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC.
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