Mother Teresa's Reaction to Pres. Clinton's Access to Abortion Clinics Act Recalled by Fr. Pavone

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - September 5, 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. Now declared "Blessed," she continues to inspire disciples of Christ worldwide.

My own interaction with her came shortly after I took leadership of Priests for Life. I asked if I could visit with her in Calcutta, and spent a week with her in June of 1994 discussing the new ministry I was leading, and the direction of pro-life strategy overall. Two events that had recently occurred shaped our conversations.

One was the speech she had given in February at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. She spoke in the presence of President and Mrs. Clinton and Vice-President and Mrs. Gore. It was an unforgettable moment, as this short, humble woman proclaimed to those in power: "...If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?...Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

I told her what an impact the speech made on the pro-life community. "What about the rest of the American people?", she asked me at once. She then gave me a homework assignment to spread the speech far and wide, which Priests for Life has been doing ever since.

The other recent event we discussed was that President Clinton had signed in May the "Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances" bill, which made it a federal crime to peacefully, physically obstruct access to the door of an abortion mill. When I explained this new law to her, she looked at me and said, "Father, if we had laws like that here in India, I would have been thrown in jail many times! Here I go to the places where abortions are done and I take the women by the arm and say, 'Come with me; we will help you and your child!'"

Another striking moment was when she brought me to one of her homes in Calcutta where prostitutes lived whom she had rescued from life on the streets. She showed me the blankets they had made. She was glowing with joy and admiration as she said, "Look, Father, at the good work these women have done." Her vision of people's goodness was not obscured by any evil they may have done.

She loved the priesthood, and after hearing me speak about Priests for Life, she sought and obtained an immediate audience with the local bishop so that the three of us could talk about how to establish it in India. Later she wrote me saying, "I hope many priests and deacons will join Priests for Life." Indeed, the whole pro-life movement draws strength from Mother Teresa, as together we seek to save the lives of the poorest of the poor, and free all people from the poverty of thinking we can abort them.
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Priests for Life has invited pro-life individuals to join in a Novena of Prayer in honor of Mother Teresa from August 27 to September 5. Visit http://www.PrayerCampaign.org

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

September 5, 2007

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

(1910-1997)

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the Order she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an order of priests.

Speaking in a strained, weary voice at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the 300,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the aging pope, the Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant personalities of our age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he said, was “a bold proclamation of the gospel.”

Mother Teresa's beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited process put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model for all to emulate.

Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father's construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18 she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”

After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community and undertake her new work, she took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian woman) she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.

The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Other helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the Order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people.

For the next four decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home.

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