Pope Francis has added the feast day of St Teresa of Kolkata to the General Roman Calendar so that her “Optional Memorial shall be celebrated by all on September 5 every year”. Source: America Magazine.
Cardinal Arthur Roche and Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, respectively prefect and secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, announced the Pope’s decision in a decree published by the Vatican yesterday.
Previously the feast day of St Teresa of Calcutta, as the Vatican refers to the city in India where she began her work with the abandoned poor, was inscribed only in the proper calendar of the Missionaries of Charity and the proper calendar of India.
Now her memorial is included in the calendar of the universal church.
“Canonised in 2016 by Pope Francis, the name of Teresa of Kolkata continues to shine out as a source of hope for many men and women who seek consolation amidst tribulations of body and spirit,” said the decree, dated December 24.
Pope Francis, responding to the requests of bishops, religious and laypeople “and considering the influence exercised by the spirituality of St Teresa in different parts of the world” decided to add her to the universal calendar, the decree said.
In a separate note, Cardinal Roche described Mother Teresa as “a beacon of hope, small in stature yet great in love, a witness to the dignity and privilege of humble service in the defence of all human life and of all those who have been abandoned, discarded and despised even in the hiddenness of the womb”.
Bishops conferences around the world will need to translate from Latin the prayers issued by the dicastery for Mass on her feast day as well as those used in the Liturgy of the Hours and have the translations confirmed by the dicastery.
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Pope adds feast day of St Teresa of Kolkata to universal calendar (By CIndy Wooden, CNS via America Magazine)
