VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 24, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes have acknowledged Mother Teresa’s lifelong “heroic” virtues, a key step toward her beatification, Vatican sources told ZENIT.
The recognition today came in the wake an imposing 80,000 pages of research.
The cardinals and bishops will meet again Oct. 1 to pronounce themselves on a miracle attributed to the intercession of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa’s baptismal name), which resulted in the cure of a woman’s abdominal tumor.
John Paul II might attend the Oct. 1 meeting and immediately promulgate the decree of recognition both of Mother Teresa’s “heroic virtues” as well as the miracle, sources said.
Born in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, in 1910, the religious became world famous for her work with the poor in Calcutta, India.
Mother Teresa could be beatified as early as next year. Such a process of beatification would break all records in modern times. It was opened formally on July 26, 1999, less than two years after her death.
Normally the process should have opened five years after her death, but John Paul II granted a dispensation in this case.
