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POPE FRANCIS HAS proclaimed Mother Teresa of Kolkata a saint, hailing her as the personification of maternal love and a powerful advocate for the poor.
“We may have some difficulty in calling her ‘Saint’ Teresa,” the pontiff said.
“Her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful that we continue to spontaneously call her Mother.”
He added:
She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognise their guilt for the crime – the crimes! – of poverty they created.
The unscripted comments came at a canonisation mass attended by 100,000 pilgrims, including 13 heads of state or government and hundreds of sari-clad nuns from Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity.
Queen Sofia of Spain and some 1,500 homeless people also looked on as Francis described Teresa’s work in the slums of the Indian metropolis as “eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor.”
To applause, he added: “Mother Teresa loved to say, ‘perhaps I don’t speak their language but I can smile’.
Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer.
The joyful celebratory atmosphere in the Vatican was mirrored in Kolkata, where candles and flowers were laid on Teresa’s tomb at the headquarters of her order.
“It is a day of rejoicing, a day of gratitude and a day of many, many blessings,” senior sister Mary Lysa said.
Francis also used his sermon to recall Teresa’s fervent opposition to abortion, which she termed “murder by the mother” in a controversial Nobel Peace prize speech in 1979.
She “ceaselessly proclaimed that the unborn are the weakest”, he said.
Pizza for the poor
The ceremony came on the eve of the 19th anniversary of Teresa’s death in Kolkata, where she spent nearly four decades working in wretched slums.
With the 16th century basilica of St Peter’s glinting in the late summer sun, Francis led a ritual mass that has barely changed for centuries.
Speaking in Latin, he declared “blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) to be a Saint … decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church.”
After the mass, the 79-year-old pontiff boarded an open-topped jeep and toured around St Peter’s square and surrounding streets to a rapturous reception from tens of thousands of well-wishers.
Solangel Rojas had come from Cali in Colombia. Clutching a picture of Teresa to her heart, she said:
It is wonderful that she has been canonised. She was an example to us all.
Among those in the front rows at the mass were 1,500 people from shelters run by the Italian branches of Teresa’s order. Later they were Francis’s guests for a giant pizza lunch served by nuns and priests.
Teresa spent all her adult life in India, first teaching, then tending to the dying poor.
It was in the latter role, at the head of her now worldwide order, that Teresa became one of the most famous women on the planet.
Born to Kosovan Albanian parents in Skopje — then part of the Ottoman empire, now the capital of Macedonia — she won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize and was revered around the world as a beacon for the Christian values of self-sacrifice and charity.
But she was also regarded with scorn by secular critics who accused her of being more concerned with evangelism than with improving the lot of the poor.
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Oh the scourge of humanity. Its disgusting and unfortunately so many of the victims died long ago and the predators and those who covered it up are dead also never to be given justice. I would say workhouses back in day were rampant.
And yet the BBC and the like were reporting on Irish sex abuse, yet all the while knew it was happening there.
Can anybody tell if Kincora House in Belfast is going to be investigated or not, in this or any (NI) investigation?
I would say there is alot of missing children due to these abuses from a long time back. BBC are disgusting..
I hope it is going to be investigated. SF i believe have called on Kenny to do an all Island investigation.
Martin McGuinness wrote to the government about just that last year, he didn’t even get an acknowledgement letter back.
British authorities, over the next few years, are doing a massive investigation into abuse which occurred all over the UK.
It was announced, just last week, that Kincora would NOT be included in this inquiry, despite the requests of victims. MI5 will not be compelled to give evidence in the Kincora investigation, which will greatly reduce its effectiveness.
This was quite an important story totally ignored by the Irish media. In the past few days the media has been in an uproar, about abuse within the Republican movement. Its true that Sinn Fein may have questions to answer – but why the almost complete media silence when it comes to Kincora & Westminster?
Double standards from the Irish media.
No crime should be investigated until all crimes are investigated.
I applaud Sinn Fein on stonewalling this issue and turning a blind eye to internal information by calling on random members of the public to come forward instead with anything incriminating before making the first move.
The movement must be protected.
so jammin you are saying that lord londonderry knew about more abuse and did nothing about it? truly shocking yet again
@Zoe
Theresa Villiers said that the UK Government would co-operate with the Northern Ireland Historical Abuse Inquiry with regard to Kincora. Today’s Tories are less likely to cover-up child abuse than those of the 1970s and 1980s were.
The Kincora case has no effect on the Republic.
“The Kincora case has no effect on the Republic.”
Pretty myopic and cold assessment there ciaran. Weren’t you the bloke excusing the israelis bombarding those children on the beach in Gaza last summer?
@werejammin too busy deciding what insults him and joanie could try and throw at SF to bother actually putting anything helpful together.
“Sir” Saville and “Sir” Harris were not working alone it seems.
It looks more like a dark demonic culture within the upper echelons of British society.
Double standards no not really. The media have no standards and are merely the mouth pieces of government and vested interests.
At least they’re making some sort of effort, wheres the investigation into the Dalkey house of horrors, where members of the Gardai themselves are implicated in child abuse. It was mentioned elsewhere that two of the gardai alleged to have carried out the abuse are still alive, and while thats the case no proper investigation will be allowed.
I hear you WJ. The SF/IRA internal police, that fine organisation and operator of Kangaroo Courts, also need to be investigated. Their activities in County Louth in 2002 reek of protecting valuable members from proper prosecution and intimidating witnesses.
Will you join me in calling for a full investigation?
Using an unrelated child abuse story to score cheap points against your political opponent, you should run for your party, fine gael, in the next election. You’ll fit right in.
Stay classy ‘johngahan’
deflection of the poorest kind jammin. the SF cult of abuse cover ups has being brutally exposed this week. more victims to coming forward psni have said 30 live investigations into SF cover ups going on at the minute. how many more victims do you think there is? do you even care one jot about them? have you shiners any morals at all?
@ patjoejoe123: “do you even care one jot about them? ”
Considering you were banned under your original fake name ‘kenneth’ for the disgusting comments you were making about a victim of child sex abuse, Aine Adams, I’d try find some humility if I were you.
WJ, by unrelated child abuse story – are you referring to your introduction of the Dalkey case into this thread to score cheap points? Or were you ignoring your own contribution?
Hypocrisy really is the SF calling card.
I mentioned a possible coverup by our own police service in relation to an article to a coverup by the british police service. Hardly unrelated. You’re the one scoring filth political points using the very serious issue of child abuse as a means to an end. Its pretty vile actually.
So your self-appointed police service and judiciary in co Louth 2002 are off-limits in your mind. Why?
Is one rape different from another?
Considering your dear leader enda has created in full public view a hierarchy of child sexual abuse victims, depending on whether or not he can use them as a political football, I’d check the hypocrisy of your question.
You’re wriggling.
Exaro News UK have done trojan work on this. They have shown this is a monumental cover up from the highest of the high.
Just like the HSBC tax scandal. The government lied there too to protect the powerful and did not investigate.
yes, the Exaro news website have been doing excellent work on this major story. Much of the British media are controlled by the establishment, and have not been giving this story the reporting it deserves.
The list of articles on the Exaro link below is just the tip of the iceberg, to the complexity of this story. It goes right to the top, a former EU commissioner, former British Home secretary, etc.
Homicide investigations have also been launched. it does not merely involve the abuse but also the possible murder of children. It is too horrific to think about, but the truth will have to come out at some stage.
It is truly the biggest ever scandal of British political history. Westminster are trying to control the story, gradually ‘drip feeding’ it, via the media, into the public domain, but we do not know where this will all end, or where it will lead to.
http://www.exaronews.com/content/child-sex-abuse-fernbridge-and-fairbank-exaro-story-thread
Some very senior British political figures implicated in this scandal, many of whom were in Margaret Thatcher’s government.
This scandal also relates to Ireland – in that abuse by British political elite was said to have occurred in Kincora House Belfast, and used for blackmail purposes by MI5.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/kincora-army-ferried-top-mi5-officer-to-two-meetings-at-boys-home-30932643.html
Jimmy Saville is in Hell laughing his h*le off….
And they will meet the the standards they themselves will set. What a joke.
About time it is too for such an investigation. Rumors about British ‘high profile’ establishment figures involved in these scandals have been around for many years now but always previously dismissed by the mainstream media. Royal patronage, UK parliamentary privilege and the BBC have a lot to answer for in this cover up?
Both governments have plenty to hide. Fine Gael & Fianna Fail covered up child abuse and protected the Catholic Church for all the decades they were in governments. They are only interested in Maria Cahill and Paudie McGahon because they see Sinn Féin as a political threat. Pure hypocrisy. They will get their answer in the polls.
Agreed Larry, this is manifestly true.
Thankfully An Garda Siochana took decisive, brave and immediate action when presented with complaints and evidence of clerical child sexual abuse in Ireland.
The great thing about Ireland is that we never cover up our scandals.
You obviously have never heard of Sarah Bland
Anthony your a plank.
Wouldn’t happen here.
You must have an inferiority complex if that is your first response to this disgusting betrayal of victims.
It actually did happen here, we just investigated them before the British.
No matter where it happens – IT IS WRONG. No matter who does it – IT IS WRONG. Covering up for the perpetrators IS WRONG. Moving abusers to put other children at risk is WRONG. Pouring vitriolic abuse on victims who have decided to forgo their anonymity IS WRONG. Refusing to deal with allegations quickly IS WRONG. Operating Kangaroo courts IS WRONG.
Is dragging abuse victims through the courts and making them face financial destitution wrong as well Mark?
how would you rate your deflection from the disgraceful cover up of abuse by SF jammin? pretty poor i would say. cult is in bother big time
Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter and Jimmy Saville were hit with a “Tsunami Of Smears”.
Fortunately they saw jail time after a proper investigation was carried out.
For others it constitutes a frenzied round of applause and robust defence at their Ard Fheis.
Jimmy Saville saw jail time?
The devil has him in a cage
Ah, I see, in your rush to make tawdry comments about your political opponents, you didn’t have your facts straight.
You really will make a fine FG man when you leave college ‘john’.
Have you really contemplated what IRA rape victims went through, or is this just a game of bluff and it will all blow over?
have your say