Go straight to Heaven

Tourists in downtown Calcutta (or Kolkata, as we all must now learn to say) cannot fail to be struck by a 50-foot mosaic of the city’s most famous immigrant, Mother Teresa. The Skopje-born nun is smiling benignly on the snarled-up traffic chaos that belches and honks beneath her. To one side of this giant piece of wall-art is an advertisement proclaiming, ‘Reserved for Calcutta’s Best Brands’.

Mother Teresa is Calcutta’s best brand. Later this month, when, in record time, the Pope bestows on her the Vatican super seal of approval and declares her blessed, she will be well on her way to becoming a saint. Hers will probably become the fastest sainthood since the Roman Catholic Church set rules controlling saint-making in the 13th century. Why the haste?

The saint-making rules had already been streamlined by the time of John Paul II’s accession. The ancient position of ‘Devil’s Advocate’ had been abolished and the process of deciding which candidates are worthy of sainthood can now start before the customary five years – a pause once thought necessary to establish a truly holy reputation – are up. Further fast-tracking for the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity was inevitable, too, given the close rapport between the two. Both Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa come from parts of eastern Europe that saw the full horrors of communism. Also, his pontificate coincided with her award of the Nobel Peace Prize, and both preached the same unyielding conservative message of Catholicism. In her lifetime, she was declared a living saint, and her mission – mostly tending to the dying in a predominantly Hindu country – strikes a particular chord for this ecumenical Pope. Mother Teresa is perhaps the least controversial canonisation imaginable.

‘There is no way Mother Teresa was going to be 361 on a list of 360,’ commented Monsignor Robert Sarno of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican body that oversees the process.