Team of 350 from Kolkata for Mother Teresa canonization, Sept 2016

Mangalore Today News Network

Kolkata, July 09, 2016: A 350-strong group of religious, officials  and admirers from Kolkata will attend Mother Teresa’s canonization at the Vatican on September 4, 2016.

Included in the official team of nearly 200 are Missionaries of Charity superior-general Sister Prema, Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata, vicar general Dominique Gomes, chief minister Mamata Banerjee and a delegation of state government officials. They will be followed by a group of 150 visitors who will travel to Italy for a short pilgrimage after the canonization.

While Archbishop D’Souza will lead a group of six from the Archdiocese, Sister Prema will be heading a council of five sisters from the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. Nuns from other centres of India will join the team.

Although it is still not confirmed, Archbishop D’Souza could join the actual canonization ceremony, sharing the altar with Pope Francis. "I am yet to receive the details of the canonization programme. So I don’t know yet if I will be on the altar with the Holy Father. But it is indeed a great honour to be able to join the ceremony and witness it. We are all waiting for it to happen," said Archbishop D’Souza, who will leave for the Vatican on September 1.

Several Kolkatans too will be present on the occasion. Most of them are admirers or people who have been associated with Mother Teresa.

Rumila Mukherjee, an executive with a private firm, will be part of a 20-member team that leaves Kolkata on September 2. "I have grown up idolizing Mother and would often follow her to Nirmal Hriday in Kalighat, which is close to where I live. She was a symbol of compassion and kindness. For Kolkatans, Mother has always been a saint. Now that she is being formally christened, I wouldn’t like to miss the ceremony," said Mukherjee, who will travel to other religious sites across Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium.

Zion Tours is organizing a tour of Italy around the canonization ceremony for 150 people from Kolkata. They will be flying in two batches on September 2 and 3. "We planned the trip with the canonization in mind. Within days of announcing the tour, all berths were booked. We have another group travelling from Goa, but the Kolkata contingent is much larger. There is great excitement about the trip because it is a historic occasion," said Paul Siquera of Zion Tours. They will visit Rome, Pisa, Venice and Milan after the canonization.

Painter Sunita Kumar, an associate of Mother Teresa is looking forward to the canonization though she will not be making the trip."It will be similar to the beatification ceremony, which I had attended. This time I will stay back in Kolkata to supervise and take part in some of the events that will follow the canonization," she said.

The festivitieswill begin in Kolkata even before the canonization. A Mother Teresa International Film Festival has been planned from August 26 to 29 at Nandan. It will screen over 20 documentaries and films on Mother. "It will be a curtain-raiser to the canonization.

We have permission to screen 13 of them. But the clearance to host the festival at Nandan is yet to come. We hope it comes through in time," said Sunil Lucas, working president of the World Catholic Association for Communication and one of the organizers. After Kolkata, the festival will be held in Shillong from September 3 to 5.

The canonization will be followed by the Day of Feast on September 5, Mother’s death anniversary.