[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 132 (Wednesday, September 24, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MOTHER TERESA: A TRIBUTE TO THE ANGEL OF MERCY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. THOMAS G. TANCREDO

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 24, 2003

  Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, soft-spoken, demure, barely five feet 
tall, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu changed the world with her selfless heart 
for the suffering. Known to all as Mother Teresa, this Roman Catholic 
nun of Albanian descent lived out her calling in the slums of Calcutta, 
India, offering decency and self-respect to the inhabitants of the 
streets and gutters. The depth of her compassion for the unwanted and 
uncared for left an indelible impression on this world.
  Her impact was most directly felt in Calcutta, where she established 
and directed her order, Missionaries of Charity. But the effect of her 
mercy reached far and wide, through a network of homes around the world 
for the poorest of the poor. Wielding the weapon of love, Mother Teresa 
combated hunger, disease, and death with a quiet spirituality that 
defied discouragement. She brought attention to the despair of those 
trampled underneath the weight of wealth and affluence, while 
underscoring their hope for dignity. The simplicity of her message, 
that there is nothing acceptable or noble about poverty, resonated well 
with the natives of her adopted country.
  At the height of the siege in Beirut in the early 1980s, Mother 
Teresa persuaded the Palestinian guerillas and the Israeli army to stop 
fighting long enough for her to rescue 37 children with mental 
retardation from a hospital on the front lines. She was then 72 years 
old.
  She pioneered one of the first homes for AIDS victims, established a 
leper colony called Shanti Nagar (Town of Peace), and created a home 
for the dying poor--the Nirmal Hriday, or ``Pure Heart,'' Home for 
Dying Destitutes, where homeless people who could not receive care from 
other institutions were washed and fed by the sisters, and allowed to 
die with dignity.
  Mother Teresa described her mission as caring for ``not just the 
poor, but the poorest of the poor: those who are so dirty and full of 
germs that no one goes near them; those who do not go to pray because 
they are naked; those who do not eat because they do not have the 
strength, those who collapse on the sidewalks knowing they are about to 
die while the living walk by without even looking back; those who do 
not cry because they have no more tears left.''
  Upon her death, we were left with, in the words of French President 
Jacques Chirac, ``less love, less compassion, less light in the 
world.''

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