Teresa in Vatican City Sunday, October 19, for of up to 300,000 people, one of its largest crowds ever.
Yet for the first time in a major Vatican ceremony, the pontiff was unable to utter a word of his homily, leaving other prelates to do so. In the few prayers he did say, his words were so slurred and shaky they could barely be understood, reporters noticed.
Several church officials have in recent weeks said that the pontiff was "approaching death" and that the actual moment of his passing may only be weeks or months away.
Vatican observers say his physical ailment was the main reason why Pope John Paul II wanted to speed up the usual lengthy beatification procedure, to ensure he would be able to bless the nun, while still being alive.
CATHOLIC EXAMPLE
Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, chief advocate for the beatification, said the pontiff’s desire to make her a new model for Catholics was a way "to present Mother Teresa as one very prominent example of someone who in many respects lived some of the things he’s been teaching in his pontificate," The Associated Press reported.
During the ceremony, the pontiff briefly overcame his physical ailment when he declared Mother Teresa "blessed," the first step toward Catholic sainthood.
"In her, we perceive the urgency to put oneself in a state of service, especially for the poorest and most forgotten, the last of the last," John Paul said at the start of the service, held on a sunny Roman morning.
SICK AND DESTITUTE
It was a reference to the Missionaries of Charity order which she founded in 1949, and called "an inspiration from God" to care for the most destitute and sick in the world.
Evangelical Christians have often criticized beatification procedures, saying that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Personal Savior and Lord has become a ‘saint’ in God’s eyes.
Yet Evangelical leaders, including American evangelist Billy Graham, have expressed their admiration for work in the slums of Calcutta, India.
She also received praise for her rejection of abortion and free distribution of condoms, while her critics described that irresponsible in a world plagued with AIDS and overpopulation.
Mother Teresa’s order now runs 703 houses in 132 countries and is considered the fastest-growing religious order in the Catholic Church.
VATICAN LUNCHEON
Nearby royal families, presidents, and Muslim and Christian delegations, the Vatican reserved places for about 2,000 homeless men and women to attend the beatification event as they eat and sleep in soup kitchens and shelters from Mother Teresa’s followers.
The event was closely watched in the Balkans where, in the region’s tradition, a fresh dispute has emerged over her ethnic origin. That mother Teresa was a good person who spent her life helping those in need is about all Macedonia and neighboring Albania can agree on.
Ahead of Sunday’s beatification, scholars and politicians in both countries made claims she was either Albanian or Macedonian, and that there was even a case to be made that she might have been Kosovar.
UNKOWN BACKGROUND
Nobody disputes that she was born in Skopje as Agnesa Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910. The problem: Skopje was in the Ottoman Empire when present day Macedonia and Albania did not even exist.
She was born to parents who had moved to Skopje from Kosovo. Her mother was an ethnic Albanian, but her father was of unknown background, giving rise to a debate which the future Catholic saint never bothered to resolve in her earthly lifetime.
It has led to friction between Macedonia and Albania and also has created fresh tensions between ethnic Albanians and Macedonians in Skopje itself.
Sulyman Rushiti of the Albanian Democratic Party representing Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians, recently said the "whole world knows mother Teresa as Albanian, just as they know that the pope is Polish."
STATUE
Albanians are furious about a statue of Mother Teresa that the Macedonian government plans to give to Rome to celebrate her beatification. The statue carries a plaque describing her as a "daughter of Macedonia."
Risto Penov, the mayor of Skopje where she lived till she was 18, sees nothing wrong in the statue, saying that "Mother Teresa herself never made a difference between ethnicity of nations."
Macedonians are irked that Albania, which the nun reportedly only visited once during her lifetime, is claiming her as its own. The small Balkan nation has declared 2004 "Mother Teresa Year" and has created a national holiday in her honor.
Those who knew her believe the nun would have proposed a compromise to the quarrelling nations. "Just call me a Catholic, and faithful servant of God."
TERESA’S HUMILITY
Analysts say that she actually was never actively seeking sainthood, as she became a model of extreme personal humility. In 1988 a correspondent of the Voice of America (VOA) recorded a prayer she uttered during a visit to the United Nations, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"My Lord, I repent from the bottom of my heart all my sins. I rejected paradise and I accepted hell. I deserve damnation because I offended you, the source of infinite goodness, although you loved me so much. I ask your mercy, my Lord. Forgive me, and I vow that with your help I will not offend against you any more," she said.
However she quickly turned her attention to the UN and a crowd of well- wishers and offered a kind of trademark benediction: "I am praying for you. God be with you."
