Indian, Hong Kong dioceses offer thanksgiving Mass for Mother Teresa

Following the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Pope Francis in Rome, Sept 4, dioceses, parishes and communities have been offering thanksgiving Masses for the sainthood of the Church’s latest saint.  The Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar in eastern India’s Odisha state, is one such community that on Sunday offered a ‎thanksgiving Mass for the sainthood of Mother Teresa.  Welcomed by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity nuns, about 2,000 faithful, ‎widows, orphans, sick, disabled and poor people participated in the Mass led by Archbishop John Barwa ‎of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar in St Vincent’s Cathedral in the state capital Bhubaneshwar.   "Saint Teresa ‎represents the new identity of Christians and a model of goodness for humans in modern times,” ‎Archbishop Barwa said in his homily.  “Mother Teresa restored human dignity to people who were ‎abandoned, forgotten, uncared for, not respected, without recognition, and served them with love, with ‎total commitment, loyalty and fraternity," he said.    "The saint’s life and her example as the 'Mother of ‎the Poor' speak eloquently to each of us, believers or non believers, and are clearly visible as a city on a ‎hill,” Arch. Barwa said.‎

‎Hong Kong Diocese also offered a thanksgiving Mass on Sunday for Mother Teresa’s sainthood. The Mass, celebrated by Cardinals John Tong and ‎Joseph Zen and the auxiliary bishops was attended by the Missionaries of Charity working in the diocese and ‎more than a thousand faithful.  In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-Shing, who is president ‎of the Ad Hoc Commission for the Jubilee of Mercy, noted that the spiritual darkness and suffering ‎that Mother Teresa quietly went through led her to an even deeper union with God.  ‎

‎15 Missionaries of Charity work throughout the territory of Hong Kong. They arrived in 1983. At the ‎beginning their main service was visiting the sick in hospitals and the poor, the homeless, the ‎Vietnamese refugees locked up in camps. Now they have two homes in the area and give hospitality ‎and food to people who are alone and abandoned. The sisters are also in charge of girls and mothers ‎fleeing domestic violence.‎

The Diocesan Committee for the Jubilee of Mercy, together with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has ‎also prepared several events on the occasion of the canonization, including an exhibition on the new ‎saint, titled "The Saint of Mercy, Mother Teresa", with some relics , photos, videos, films and meetings.‎

The city of Kolkata, India, which Mother Teresa adopted as her home town, will be celebrating a thanksgiving Mass in the city's Netaji Indoor Stadium on Oct. 2, This will be followed by civic event attended by state and city authorities.  (Source: AsiaNews)