Albania asks India for Mother Teresa's body

(Oct.13,2009): Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s government has asked India to hand over the remains of Mother Teresa, which are located at the Mother House in Kolkata, West Bengal State, where she is buried. The Albanian government has asked for the Catholic nun’s remains to be handed over by the 100th anniversary of her birth in August next year, Telegraph India reported. Prime Minister Berisha said Albania had started negotiations with the Indian government, which “will be intensified this year”. In Calcutta, a spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity said: “We are unable to comment because we are unaware of any such development.” Sources in Delhi pointed out that Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and it would be “extremely complex and difficult” to accept Albania’s demand.
Fr. Babu Joseph the spokesperson of Catholic Bishops Conference of India, CBCI, said the Catholic Church in India had not got any information regarding the demand. Asked whether the CBCI would agree to such a demand, he said it was up to the Missionaries of Charity to take a decision. Macedonia and Albania have been engaged in a dispute over the national identity of Mother Teresa, who was born in Macedonia to an ethnic Albanian family, said Telegraph India. She reached Calcutta in 1929 and dedicated herself to the service of the poor and the infirm, receiving the Nobel peace prize in 1979.