IRELAND: The beatification of Mother Teresa yesterday was "a great blessing" and "a tremendous honour", said Sister Cara Íosa McCarthy of the Missionaries of Charity in Dublin. The congregation was founded by Mother Teresa.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Sister Cara Íosa, who is from Headford, Co Galway, said the beatification recognised that Mother Teresa had reached great holiness and gave "great hope and confidence [to the belief] that God calls all to a relationship with him."
That was what Mother Teresa had always said, holiness "was not for the few but for everyone."
Sister Cara Íosa had met Mother Teresa three times, in London, Rome, and Calcutta, where she worked with the congregation for a year and a half.
Local superior at the convent on Dublin's South Circular Road, where there are four sisters, she said the congregation had three other convents in Ireland.
Those at Armagh and Blarney, Co Cork, had four sisters each, while the one in Sligo had six.
Their mission was "to work with the poorest of the poor". In Dublin most of their work was with alcoholics, drug addicts, and young mothers. Sister Cara Íosa joined the congregation in London 15 years ago, even before she met Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa always had a love for Ireland, she said. She had visited "seven or eight times", including in 1996, the year before she died. In 1993 she was conferred with the freedom of Dublin.
Born in Scopje, Macedonia, in 1910, at 18 Agnes Gonxha Bojacxhiu, as she was, decided to join the Irish Sisters of Our Lady of Loretto, who were active in India. In 1928 she came to Loretto headquarters at Rathfarnham in Dublin. While there, she learned English and chose the name Sister Teresa, in memory of St Thérése of Lisieux. Early in 1929, she went to work with the Sisters in Calcutta.
Gay Byrne remembered Mother Teresa's only appearance on The Late Late Show, in 1972.
When she came into the studio he was "confronted with this insurmountable, impenetrable wall of faith. It was an extremely impressive thing."
There was an audience of about 120 on the night and a man with a motorbike helmet went around collecting money, "even engagement rings", for her.
For two weeks the money came rolling in, even though she had never asked for money. "It was extremely moving and impressive," he said.
He said he was "very distressed" by a book published early this year by an academic from Calcutta critical of Mother Teresa. Titled Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, it was written by Aroup Chatterjee, a Calcutta native.
