Calcutta (Fides Service) – Mother Teresa of Calcutta dreamed of opening a Home for the poor in China. This did not happen during her life time but there is hope that it may soon come true. On 5 September, the 5th anniversary of the death of the white clad nun who will be Beatified in Rome by Pope John Paul on Mission Sunday, 19 October, Sister Nirmala Joshi, who succeeded Mother as Superior of the Missionaries of Charity says: “Her dream has not been shelved, and we think it may come true”.
The idea of opening a Home in China, as Mother Teresa wished, is still nursed by her spiritual daughters although as yet they have received no official invitation from the Chinese government.
Sister Nirmala, who accompanied Mother Teresa on her second visit to China in 1993, saw that she was determined to open a mission in that country. “The Holy Father wants me to do it” Mother Teresa told Sister Nirmala.
Mother Teresa first went to China in 1985 accompanied by Sister Dorothy, at the time regional superior for Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. A year later, speaking with Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, then the Pope’s Secretary of State, she shared with him her dream of opening a Home in China.
During the commemoration service on September 5, Sister Nirmala said: “Today the Missionaries of Charity have Homes in Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Mali, Israel, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, where our Sisters care for the dying, AIDS patients, orphans and lepers. At the moment we have no imminent plans”. The commemoration was one of prayer and celebration and of joy. Certain that their Mother is in heaven and that her death was really her day of birth for eternal life, the Sisters gathered round the burial place situated inside their House to sing a hearty rendering of “happy birthday Mother”. PA (Fides Service 9/9/2003 EM lines 25 Words: 306)