SOME 20 people from the Catholic Church’s Wagga Diocese are travelling to the Vatican for Sunday’s canonisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and hoping friends in high places will give them good seats.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The pilgrimage is being led by Father Thomas Casanova, parish priest of West Wagga.
His sister – Sister Bridgid – is a member of the order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity, and she may be delivering one of the readings during Sunday’s Papal Mass.
Father Casanova said the 20 Wagga district people would be joined by 17 others on the pilgrimage.
Father Casanova said he was very happy with the interest shown in Mother Teresa’s canonisation during which she will be declared a saint, describing it as a “wonderful and long awaited event”.
“Mother Teresa is a saint not so much because of her works of service, great as they were, but because of her heroic virtue and love of God and neighbour,” Father Casanova said.
“She spent her whole life saying yes to God, trusting and loving Jesus in every circumstance.
“I hope her canonisation will lead not just to admiration but also to imitating her love of God and neighbour."
Father Casanova said the Wagga community of the Missionaries of Charity was the last in the world to be established during the time that Mother Teresa was leading the Missionaries of Charity.
He said he had visited Mother Teresa’s convent in India a few years ago after she had died and was struck by what he had found in her bedroom, which had been preserved.
Mother Teresa had written on the wall “my heart belongs to Jesus”, but instead of writing the word heart she had drawn an image of a heart.
“It was child-like in simplicity, but incredible depth,” Father Casanova said.
He said some people on the pilgrimage were making their first overseas trip.