On Sunday, September 4, 2016, Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata was canonized a saint by Pope Francis. Pope Francis, however, acknowledged that despite the fact she now has a formal title as St. Teresa of Calcutta, to the world she’ll always remain “Mother Teresa.”
During his homily, Pope Francis praised Mother Teresa as an “emblematic figure of womanhood” and “a tireless worker of mercy.” He also underlined not only her love for the poor, but also her tireless advocacy for the unborn: “In all aspects of her life, [Mother Teresa] was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded.” He described her commitment to defending life, “ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable.’”
Mother Teresa is likely the only Catholic saint to ever win a Nobel Prize which she did in 1979. This allowed for her voice to be heard by the powers of this world, “so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.”
“For Mother Teresa, mercy was the ‘salt’ which gave flavor to her work, it was the ‘light’ which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering,” .
Saint Teresa of Kolkata's mysticism by Ines Angeli Murzaku, Ph.D.
On August 23, 2007, TIME magazine published excerpts of the private journals and letters of Mother Teresa depicting her crisis of faith and her almost 50 years without sensing God’s presence. TIME’s author, David Van Biema, asked: What does her experience teach us about the value of doubt?