Dubai: Catholic expatriates from India in Dubai joined their counterparts back home and elsewhere in hailing the canonisation of Mother Teresa on Sunday.
Catholic churches in Dubai such as St. Mary’s in Oud Mehta and St. Francis of Assisi in Jebel Ali placed cut-outs and photographs of the Nobel peace laureate known as the “saint of the gutters” near the altars for worshippers to venerate her once she was officially declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Francis.
“Today being Sunday, we have eight masses including an Arabic mass. During all these masses, we mentioned about Mother Teresa of Calcutta, what she lived for and what is the importance of today and we thanked God for elevating the Mother to a saint,” J. James, a parishioner of St. Mary’s Church told Gulf News.
“We placed a beautiful cut-out of the Mother near the altar for the people to venerate and pray since Friday. An image of the St. Mother Teresa will be kept in the church in future as well,” he added.
The Jebel Ali Church also included declamation about Mother’s canonisation in the masses held on Sunday, said Fr. Wilson Clifford, an assistant parish priest at the church.
“I have had the great opportunity of meeting the Mother thrice in 1980s and I have worked with her sisters at the Missionaries of Charity during my last assignment in Padri-Ki-Haveli [Priests’ Residence] in Patna [the oldest St. Mary’s Church in Bihar] where she also had worked once. Her room and her bed are preserved there,” said Fr. Wilson, who worked in Patna for almost three years before coming over to Dubai in May.
“A vow to work for the poorest of the poor without counting the cost and getting nothing in return is the main speciality of the nuns of Missionaries of Charity. Kolkata, the City of Joy received some joy through the Mother and her followers,” added Fr. Wilson, who also had the chance of receiving a signed copy of her biography from the compassionate nun herself and the author Navin Chawla.
James Mathew, managing director of Crowe Horwath said the canonisation of Mother Teresa as a ‘saint’ reaffirmed the belief that she was a holy spirit born as a human for the uncared, unloved and the forgotten.
“We feel proud that a holy person like Mother Teresa spent most of her life in India and exemplified the “joy of giving”,” said Mathew, who is also the secretary general of Indian Business and Professional Council, Dubai
“The life of Bharat Ratna Mother Teresa reminisces that there is a greater purpose in life when you live for others. When we enjoy a three-course dinner with family, we should remember that there are families struggling for one meal a day; when we are cosy in our homes, there are war-stricken refugees with no roof over them. While we take care of our near ones, we have a moral responsibility to contribute towards the upliftment of the underprivileged,” he said.
