KOLKATA: Saint Teresa’s 111th birth anniversary was celebrated on Thursday, but devotees were not allowed inside Mother House. Resident nuns of Missionaries of Charity held mass and thanksgiving at the saint’s tomb, but public participation was largely online, with Catholic Association of Bengal (CAB) organizing and streaming an hour-long programme from Mother House in the afternoon.
A special morning mass was held at the Archbishop House on Park Street. Dominic Gomes, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, said. “We prayed to her to make us her agents of peace. We need her blessings and love in this broken world.” Later, priests and staff of the Archbishop House sang Mother’s favourite hymns, starting with Channel of Peace, while Gomes played the accordion.
“The public took part from afar, on the CAB Facebook page, as we prayed for safety and peace around the world, especially Afghanistan,” CAB president Angelina Mantosh Jasnani said. Last year, too, CAB had made arrangements for online participation of the mass held at St Thomas’ Church. Only 30 had physically attended the mass last year.
Fr Moloy DeCosta, Dean of Kolkata, Fr Orson Wells, Fr Devraj Fernandes, CAB member Colin Fitzgerald and Harish Mergaramani, president, Sindhi Panchayat were present at Thursday’s event at Mother House.
Mother Teresa is the CAB’s patron saint. CAB will organize an interfaith prayer at Allen Park on her Feast Day on September 5, the day she passed away in 1997.
