India recalls Mother Teresa on 12^th death anniversary

(September 7, 2009) On the twelfth death anniversary of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, on Saturday, Indians irrespective of colour, caste or religion remembered her with celebrations, Masses and public events. Politicians and out-castes and men and women, irrespective of religious affiliations paid homage to Blessed Teresa in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. At the mother house of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, hundreds of people attended Mass celebrated by Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta. Groups of Catholics, Muslims and Hindus visited the tomb of Mother Teresa whom Archbishop Sirkar compared to the Virgin Mary for her 'yes' to Christ. In Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, hundreds of people attended a prayer service at the “garden of Mother Teresa” where the government erected a bronze statue of the Blessed in 2005. Bishop Thomas Macwan of Ahmedabad and municipal councillor, Dilip Mahajan led the celebration. Gujarat has long been the scene of Hindu violence against Muslims and Christians, sometimes, endorsed and supported by the state government itself. Later the Missionaries of Charity organized a feeding programme for hundreds of the poorest of the poor of the city.