http://www.wsj.com/articles/mother-teresa-set-for-sainthood-after-miracle-approved-1450429999
Mother Teresa Set for Sainthood After Vatican Approves Second Miracle Kolkata archbishop calls move ‘like a Christmas gift to us’ Pope Francis has approved the second miracle of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, clearing the way for the late missionary to become a saint, the Vatican announced Friday. Photo: AP By Francis X. Rocca in Rome and Joanna Sugden in New Delhi Updated Dec. 18, 2015 8:51 a.m. ET 39 COMMENTS <http://www.wsj.com/articles/mother-teresa-set-for-sainthood-after-miracle-approved-1450429999#livefyre-comment> Pope Francis <http://topics.wsj.com/person/F/Pope-Francis/7351> has approved the second miracle of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, clearing the way for the late missionary to become a saint, the Vatican announced Friday. The Vatican didn’t provide further details, but according to a report in Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic bishops’ conference <http://www.avvenire.it/Chiesa/Pagine/madre-teresa-santa-il-via-libera-di-papa-francesco.aspx>, Mother Teresa’s canonization would probably occur on Sept, 4, 2016, the day before her feast day. That event would likely prove a highlight of the current Holy Year of Mercy, which the pope inaugurated at the Vatican on Dec. 8. In April 2014, the double canonization <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304788404579523802070217962> of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII in Rome drew an estimated 800,000 pilgrims. If Pope Francis chose to perform the canonization ceremony for Mother Teresa in Kolkata, he would make the first papal trip to India since 1999. A Vatican spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment on the timing of her canonization or the nature of the miracle. According to Avvenire, Pope Francis approved the findings of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which found the 2008 healing of a Brazilian man with a brain infection and kidney disease had been due to the intercession of Mother Teresa. “For our people, even much before canonization, Mother [Teresa] was a saint,” said Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, an alternate name for Kolkata. “We are very, very happy. It’s like a Christmas gift given to us.” Mother Teresa, who spent much of her life helping the poor living in slums in the eastern Indian city, died in 1997 at the age of 87. She was born Anjëzë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to an ethnic Albanian family in Skopje, in what is today the Republic of Macedonia. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, an order of nuns dedicated to care of the “poorest of the poor,” in Kolkata, in 1950. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and received strong support from St. John Paul II, who gave her permission to open a soup kitchen inside Vatican City. The Catholic Church normally requires one so-called 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. Mother Teresa will be Kolkata’s first Catholic saint, Archbishop D’Souza said, but the third woman in India to be canonized, after St. Alphonsa and St. Euphrasia, who were both from Kerala in southern India. [image: Mother Teresa of Kolkata on a visit to St James' Church in London in July 1981.] ENLARGE Mother Teresa of Kolkata on a visit to St James' Church in London in July 1981. Photo: Getty Images St. John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa in 2003, after an expedited process that began only 18 months after her death. The Vatican normally waits a minimum of five years after someone’s death before considering beatification. Beatification is formally an honor restricted to someone’s home diocese, whereas canonized saints are venerated by Catholics everywhere. But Mother Teresa has been the object of world-wide devotion since her death. India accorded her a state funeral. By the time of her death, her order had more than 4,000 members, known by their distinctive blue-bordered white saris, working on five continents. The Missionaries of Charity now cares for the sick and destitute in more than 130 countries. It runs soup kitchens, AIDS hospices, leprosy centers and homes for women and orphaned children. “It’s fantastic. All of us here knew she was a miracle herself through her work,” said Sunita Kumar, a spokeswoman for the nuns in the order. “It’s happened so quickly. All the sisters are very elated.” Even during her lifetime, some in India criticized Mother Teresa’s good work, saying she was just trying to convert Hindus to Christianity. But she wrote that her missionaries should strive to “help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim and a Catholic become a better Catholic.” “When you do any good, criticism will be there,” said Archbishop D’Souza. “When she was asked what she thought about it, she said she prayed for them.” *Write to *Francis X. Rocca at francis.ro...@wsj.com and Joanna Sugden at joanna.sug...@wsj.com