Is our country losing Mother Teresa?

With the birth centenary of Mother Teresa approaching in 2010, a political argument over the possession of her body has begun. The question is whether her remains should be with India, her place of choice, or Albania, her place of origin.

Since 1950, for nearly 45 years, Mother Teresa served the poor, the sick, orphans and the dying though her Missionaries of Charity. A work-famous Indian ambassador, he work spread across from Kolkata to many countries, garnering her much praise as well as some criticism.

Various organisation and individuals objected to her belief in the spiritual goodness of poverty, a strong stance on abortion, and alleged baptism of the dying. It was also said that her work must meet the standards set by the Human Rights Commission before it could be worthy of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mother Teresa’s work has been widely recognised and appreciated, and she has been the recipient of several awards of international acclaim, the Nobel Peace Prize; the Magsaysay award; the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize; the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour in India; and the Nehru peace prize, to name a few.

She was also awarded honorary citizenship by the US, and was beatified by the pope on her death and given the title of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Beatification if a step in the process of attaining sainthood, of the pope, the supreme authority of the Catholic Church, allowing public veneration or worship of a person as a saint.

There has been much public debate about whether Mother Teresa or Lady Diana should be beatified, since if we speak about outstanding women who determined the character of humankind in the past century, the names of these two remarkable women crop up. They even died almost at the same time, within a span of six days. One died tragically in a car crash, the other followed her peacefully.

Mother Teresa’s life, work and death have been in public gaze. Now, her birth centenary is raising a fresh wave of debate with Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha asking for her remains to be repatriated to Albania before the 100th anniversary of her birth. There is a further complication, that Macedonia may also be a claimant. Born to Albanian parents, Mother Teresa’s place of birth is Skopje, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, but is now the capital of Macedonia. From the age of 18, when she joined the community of Irish Nuns, she had chosen to teach and work in India.

The Indian government’s stand is quite clear: “Mother Teresa is an Indian citizen and is resting in her own country.” As Mother Teresa once said, “By blood I am Albanian, by citizenship an Indian, by faith I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world.”

Despite the controversy building up over claims on the remains of this gentle saint, as Indians all of us say, she came to India by choice, she chose India as her karmabhoomi, it is her work in India that attained her beatification, she died on Indian soil, it is only rightful that in respect to her memory that her remains should be allowed to remain here.