[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 141 (Thursday, October 31, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO MOTHER TERESA

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                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 31, 2002

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Mother 
Teresa whose blessed soul entered Heaven September 5, 1997, at the age 
of 87. She had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor just a few 
months earlier, blessing these hallowed halls with her presence.
  Mother Teresa's death is a loss to those she worked with and cared 
for, the leaders who met her, all who were inspired by the humble nun 
so full of love. Her life however, was the greater inspiration and the 
reason she will be celebrated in perpetuity. She was light, hope, 
strength, and courage, possessing a full heart endowed by God which 
transcended the temporal world.
  Mother Teresa was born into an Albanian, Roman Catholic family in the 
Macedonian city of Skopje as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 27, 1910.
  At age 18 she joined the Iris order of the Sisters of Loretto. A year 
later, Mother Teresa was sent by the Sisters of Loretto to Calcutta, 
India to teach geography at St. Mary's High School. In 1946, on a train 
to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received a calling from God to leave the 
covenant walls and go into the streets, helping the poor while living 
amongst them.
  Heeding the call, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity 
in 1950, an order emphasizing strict personal austerity and dedicated 
to the service of the poor. Today, this ministry extends to 120 
countries with 568 houses dedicated to the unwanted, the unclothed, and 
the unfed. In Calcutta alone, she and her sisters have provided for the 
successful adoption of 8,000 children.
  Mother Teresa was selected as a recipient of the first Pope John 
XXIII Peace Prize in 1971. In 1979, Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel 
Peace Prize in the name of the poor, using the award to build more 
hospices. She was awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal in 
June 1997. Her only request of Congress was for prayer; ``that we 
continue God's work with beautiful and with great love.''
  Mother Teresa is now destined to sainthood. In 1999, the Pope waived 
the five-year waiting period for opening the process toward her final 
canonization. This testifies to the Vatican's certainty of the holiness 
Mother Teresa embodied as Jesus Christ's disciple and servant, and her 
obedience to the Blessed Mother. In September of 2002, the Vatican 
Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved her ``heroic virtues.'' 
The Vatican also recognizes a 1998 miracle in October of 2002. After 
one more approved miracle, Mother Teresa will have reached 
canonization, the final stage of sainthood where two distinctly 
different miracles must be attested to and proved. It is then Mother 
Teresa's soul will be officially declared to be among the angels in 
heaven.
  Mother Teresa lived a life of service, one her admirers can only hope 
to emulate and we should strive to follow. I consider it an honor to 
have met this incredible saint and witnessed her works. Her humility 
and love were true gifts of God.

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