Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Case for Sainthood
Progresses
By
John Norton
Catholic
News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The postulator of Mother Teresa’s cause for sainthood
formally turned over her 35,000-page case file --- minus one box --- to
the Vatican. |
Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, helped by about a dozen other male and female
members of the Missionaries of Charity, the order Mother Teresa founded,
unloaded 22 bubble-wrapped cardboard boxes from a battered white van Aug.
22 at the sainthood congregation’s offices, just off St. Peter’s Square.
The religious wheeled the documents --- the fruit of a two-year
inquiry by the Archdiocese of Calcutta, India --- into the congregation’s
archive, where Archbishop Edward Novak, congregation secretary, ceremoniously
wrote out a receipt.
"We hope the process goes pretty quickly," the archbishop said,
noting that Christians and other religious believers around the world wanted
Mother Teresa rapidly proclaimed a saint.
"Mother Teresa is already a saint with God," he said. "The
formal proclamation (by the pope) is a recognition of an already existing
reality."
After the congregation verifies that the documentation meets
procedural standards, it will appoint an official to read through it all
and supervise the drafting of a summary that will be examined by a panel
of theologians. The appointment was expected to take place in October or
November.
Airline baggage handlers lost one box of documents somewhere
between Calcutta and Rome. Father Kolodiejchuk said it had been located
in London and was en route to Rome Aug. 22.
"I’m just glad they found it," he said, smiling with relief. |
