West Bengal cathedral co-named after Mother Teresa

(November 16, 2009) A diocese in the eastern India’s West Bengal state has co-named its cathedral after Mother Teresa of Kolkata, which the local bishop described as the world’s first. The new cathedral of Baruipur Diocese, with Mother Mary as the first patron and Mother Teresa as the second patron was inaugurated on Thursday in Baruipur, a town some 25 kms south of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. “This is the first cathedral in the world where she is the co-patroness,” said Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur. Vicar General Fr Anil Mitra told Express Buzz that the Cathedral of Immaculate Heart of Mary and Blessed Teresa, has a small statue of Mother Teresa made by Subroto Ganguly. Archbishop Lucas Sircar of Calcutta, inaugurated the Cathedral in the presence of Sr Prema, Superior-General of the Missionaries of Charity nuns, that Mother Teresa founded. Born of Albanian parents in 1910 in Skopje, now in Macedonia, Mother Teresa came to Kolkata in 1929 as a missionary with the Loreto sisters. In 1950, she founded her Missionaries of Charity nuns to care for destitutes and the poorest of the poor. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and died in 1997 in Kolkata. Pope John Paul II in 2003 declared Mother Teresa blessed, which is a step away from final sainthood.