Cardinal Parolin discusses Mother Teresa's canonisation

(AGI) Vatican City, Sept 5 - What was Mother Teresa's secret? Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, posed the question during the first liturgy for the day dedicated to the new saint, which will be celebrated every Sept. 5. "There certainly isn't a secret, because we've just said it loud and clear in the Gospel: among the poor, Mother Teresa discovered the face of Christ, who became poor in order to make us richer through his poverty, and answered his boundless love with boundless love for the poor," he stated. Nineteen years after her death and 37 after she received the Nobel Prize that shifted the world's gaze on the poor of India, Mother Teresa has been declared a saint by the Church.

The canonisation of the Albanian nun, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was applauded by the 120,000 faithful who gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday for the occasion. Among those present were the Albanian President Bujar Nishani, Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, and the former Queen of Spain, Sofia. Italy was represented by the Minister of Public Administration and Simplification, Marianna Madia. Pope Francis included Mother Teresa among the saints so that "the whole world may contemplate her". The nun of the poor "was always close to anyone she encountered who was in need", Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said while reading the request for her canonisation at the beginning of the ceremony. Pope Francis listed the strength of her denouncements of injustice as one of the reasons for Mother Teresa's sainthood. "She made her voice heard before the powers of the world, so that they might recognise their guilt for the crimes of poverty they themselves created," His Holiness affirmed. "We may have some difficulty in calling her 'Saint' Teresa. Her holiness is so near to us," the pontiff added. Pope Francis concluded the ceremony by quoting the new saint: "Perhaps I don't speak their language, but I can smile". (AGI). .