NEWS SIDEBAR: Saintly, yes. But Mother Teresa is not yet a saint.

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Mother Teresa was a living example of Christian spiritual truths. But was she a saint? Not in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church _ at least not yet. In a process that could take as long as two centuries or as little as 25 years, her life […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Mother Teresa was a living example of Christian spiritual truths.

But was she a saint?


Not in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church _ at least not yet.

In a process that could take as long as two centuries or as little as 25 years, her life will have to be investigated by church authorities, her every action discussed and critiqued, witnesses interviewed on her virtues.

Most importantly, two miracles wrought posthumously through her intercession will have to be proven to the satisfaction of the pope.

Then and only then will the pope declare Mother Teresa a saint, a spiritual hero to the faithful.

She would join the ranks of more than 4,000 people whose lives are considered such remarkable examples of living spirituality that they have been declared saints by the Roman Catholic Church.

Though the cult of sainthood has existed since the earliest days of Christianity, it wasn’t until 1234 that the Catholic church began officially certifying saints.

Catholics are instructed to learn from the lives of these spiritual exemplars, pray to them for divine intercession and follow the example of their lives.

Because Mother Teresa’s life of simplicity and charity is already so widely admired and imitated, her cause for sainthood is likely to be taken up quickly by the Vatican. Pope John Paul II, who has proclaimed more saints in the nearly 19 years of his reign than virtually any other pontiff, believes the world needs saints now more than ever before.”He wants to present people living models in which they can find an inspiring example,”said the Rev. Peter Gumpel, deputy of the Vatican Postulator General’s Office in Rome. Gumpel’s office is the administrative body that works with the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to conduct research and recommend candidates for sainthood.”There has not been one person in our present time who has had such a global effect as Mother Teresa,” said the Rev. Michael Dimengo, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Cleveland. “I would say her cause will be taken up within the year and responded to quickly as well.”

The first step in that process will be for a group of admirers to step forward and petition the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to investigate her life.

Once that petition has been accepted, advocates for the cause of Mother Teresa’s sainthood will be named around the world. They will be charged with gathering evidence through her life’s actions, writings, and testimonies.


They will ask: When did she begin to lead a spiritual life? How did she demonstrate her love of God in her everyday actions?

The advocates will also coordinate the formation and distribution of church-approved prayers to those faithful who wish to call for Mother Teresa’s posthumous intercession in their lives.

If one of those prayers is judged to have been answered by God in a miraculous fashion, the event will be rigorously investigated by the Vatican. If it can be established to the church’s satisfaction that the occurrence, often a healing, was not a hoax or the result of scientific or medical intervention, it will be declared a miracle.

With one miracle to her credit, Mother Teresa would qualify for the title of “blessed.” If the pope agrees, Roman Catholics would be free to venerate her life and her teachings.

Only upon evidence of a second miracle would the pope then be free to canonize her as a saint.

Should Mother Teresa join the ranks of the saints, she would reside with St. Dorothy, a martyr who was tortured and beheaded for her faith; the better-known St. Francis of Assisi, father of the Franciscan monks; and St. Joan of Arc, whose lesson to the faithful is one of risk and courage.


Other spiritual giants of the 20th century are still awaiting certification of their causes for sainthood _ Pope John XXIII, for example, who introduced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and Padre Pio, the celebrated Italian mystic who supporters claim bore until his death in 1968 the marks of stigmata, wounds in his hands and feet like those Jesus suffered on the cross.

So too American Cardinal Terrence Cooke _ notorious for blessing helicopters bound for Vietnam combat _ has been proposed for sainthood.

The Roman Catholic faith is not alone in venerating saints.

Orthodox Christians honor the lives of the early saints, martyrs and hermits.

Buddhists venerate bodhisattvas, the highly evolved spiritual beings who are considered”buddhas in the making”and who have delayed their entry into the bliss of nirvana in order to save others.

Hindus revere gurus and avatars _ deities in human form.

Muslims revere Sufi masters and”awliya’Allah,”close friends of God.

But only in Roman Catholicism is there an official sainthood bureaucracy.

“Obviously saints are role models for inspiration and people’s integration of Gospel spirituality and Christian spirituality into their own lives,” Dimengo said.

“In the case of Mother Teresa, she exhibited boundless generosity in the assistance of human beings that started early in her religious life. She interiorized her spiritual life so that in her presentation she was beautiful.” (Anne Gordon is a journalist in Cleveland and the author of”A Book of Saints: True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives.”)

MJP END RNS

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