Mother Teresa honoured as saint and model of mercy

Vatican City, Sep 4 (AP) Tens of thousands of pilgrims -rich and poor, powerful and homeless – filled St. Peter’sSquare today for the canonisation of Mother Teresa, the tinynun who cared for the world’s most destitute and became anicon of a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to findlost souls. Pope Francis is declaring Mother Teresa a saint at amorning Mass, making her the model of his Jubilee Year ofMercy and in some ways his entire papacy. For Francis, MotherTeresa put into action his ideal of the church as a merciful"field hospital" for the poorest of the poor, those sufferingboth material and spiritual poverty. Throughout the night, pilgrims prayed at vigils in areachurches and flocked before dawn to the Vatican to try to geta good spot for the Mass being celebrated under a searing hotsun and blue skies. "Her heart, she gave it to the world," said CharlotteSamba, a 52-year-old mother of three who travelled with achurch group from Gabon for the Mass. "Mercy, forgiveness,good works: It is the heart of a mother for the poor." While big, the crowds were not expected to reach the300,000 who turned out for Mother Teresa’s 2003 beatification,thanks in part to security fears in the wake of Islamicextremist attacks in Europe. Those fears prompted a huge,3,000-strong law enforcement presence to secure the areaaround the Vatican and close the airspace above. Nevertheless, those on hand were jubilant to have madethe journey – nuns, priests, volunteers, pilgrims and touristsclutching the coveted 100,000 tickets issued for the Mass. One group of 40 Indian nationals traveled from Macerata,Italy to honour a woman given India’s highest civilian andhumanitarian awards for her work in the slums of Kolkata.Another group of 100 drove from Kosovo toting a banner thatread: "Mother Teresa: Pray for Us." In addition, 13 heads of state and government ledofficial delegations while 1,500 homeless people invited byPope Francis had VIP seats and were going to be treated by thepope to a Neapolitan pizza lunch in the Vatican auditoriumafterward. While Francis is clearly keen to hold Mother Teresa up asa model for her joyful dedication to society’s outcasts, he isalso recognizing holiness in a nun who lived most of her adultlife in spiritual agony sensing that God had abandoned her. According to correspondence that came to light after shedied in 1997, Mother Teresa experienced what the church callsa "dark night of the soul"- a period of spiritual doubt,despair and loneliness that many of the great mysticsexperienced. In Mother Teresa’s case, it lasted for nearly 50years – an almost unheard of trial. (MORE) (AP)SAI