Kolkata, UN remember Mother Teresa on death anniversary

Special peace prayers were held Friday to observe the 17th death anniversary of Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata at the Mother House in the eastern metropolitan city of India.  Prayers and floral tributes were offered at her grave.  "I think the message mother wants to give to the world is to give God the priority and after this the human being is valued and appreciated in the dignity which God has given them," Sister Prema, the superior general of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, told ANI. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday honoured Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata, observing the second International Day of Charity which the world body instituted last year in her memory.    In a message for the occasion, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon called on “people everywhere to act on the charitable impulse that ‎resides in every human being -- to start giving and to keep on giving.”  Noting the observance on her death anniversary he said Mother Teresa’s “life and good works for some of the human family’s poorest and most vulnerable members has ‎been such an enormous inspiration.”  “Let us recognize charity for what it is at heart: a noble enterprise aimed at bettering the human ‎condition,” he urged.  The UN chief noted, “charity may come in many forms, from the volunteering of time and expertise to straightforward financial or in-kind donations by individuals, corporations or philanthropic foundations.”  “Whatever the case,” he said, “such generosity and kindness, with no expectation of financial gain, can make profound differences in human well-being.”  Ban noted that at a time of “intense fiscal and budgetary constraint, charity takes on greater importance in global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and implement what we hope will be an ambitious post-2015 agenda.”  “While charity cannot be seen as a replacement or alternative to public spending, it plays an invaluable complementary role, he added.  

Born of Albanian parents on Aug. 26, 1910 in Skopje, now in Macedonia, Mother Teresa joined the ‎Irish Sisters of Loreto and arrived in Calcutta in 1929.  In 1950 she founded her congregation of the ‎Missionaries of Charity.  The 1979 Nobel Peace laureate died on Sept. 5, 1997 in Kolkata, at the age of 87.  A miraculous cure through the prayerful intercession of the saintly nun cleared the way for her beatification on Oct. 19, 2003 by St. John Paul II, conferring her the title ‘Blessed’.  Another miracle would be required to qualify her for final sainthood, though the Pope could waive the requirement. 

Among the several recognition that Mother Teresa received for her charitable works include the Magsaysay Award in 1962, the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the John F. Kennedy International Award in 1971.