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| Monday, 20 October 2003 |
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Pope declares Mother Teresa blessed VATICAN CITY, Sunday (Reuters) Pope John Paul declared Mother Teresa of Calcutta a blessed of the Roman Catholic Church yesterday putting the late "Saint of the Gutters" on the fast track to sainthood for her life of selfless help to the poor. "With our apostolic authority, we grant that the venerable servant of God Teresa of Calcutta shall from now on be called blessed," declared the pontiff, a longtime friend of the frail nun who died in 1997 at the age of 87. Over 150,000 pilgrims, tourists, Catholics and non-Catholic admirers packed the beatification Mass in St Peter's Square and filled the broad Via della Conciliazione leading from the Vatican down to the River Tiber. The ethnic Albanian sister, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, tended to the sick and dying of Calcutta's slums for decades with the Missionaries of Charity order she founded. Many of her nuns in their blue-trimmed white saris stood out in the vast crowd, where a special section for thousands of Rome's homeless and downtrodden was reserved close to the elevated altar where John Paul said the beatification Mass. The ceremony came three days after the Polish pontiff, 83, celebrated his 25th anniversary as head of the billion-strong Church amid growing concern for his failing health. |
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