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OF MOTHER TERESA VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II has set aside canonical rules in order to allow the immediate opening of the cause for the beatification of Mother Teresa. Under norms established in 1983, a "cause"-- the process that can lead to beatification and eventual canonization-- cannot begin until five years have lapsed from the death of the individual involved. But for the first time since the adoption of those rules, the Holy Father has used his authority to dispense with them, in the case of the nun whose work with "the poorest of the poor" made her a revered figure throughout the world. In an official statement released March 1, the Holy See announced that the process toward beatification for Mother Teresa had been opened "at the insistence of the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, and many other prelates." So the process for Mother Teresa's beatification has begun, with a diocesan inquiry in Calcutta. The announcement provoked some surprise in Rome, since the Pope had previously indicated that the cause of Mother Teresa would follow the usual pattern. During an interview with reporters on an airplane flight to Brazil in October 1997, just weeks after Mother Teresa's death, he had said that the cause could not begin until the year 2002, under the terms of the apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionibus Magister, which he himself had promulgated on January 25, 1983. On the other hand, when he visited India as the Pope's personal representative at Mother Teresa's funeral, Cardinal Angelo Sodano said that the process toward beatification would probably move quickly. And Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had observed that "there are cases so clear that the ordinary procedure can be rapid." In the case of Mother Teresa, whose life was "so splendid in everyone's eyes," Cardinal Ratzinger said, "a long process will not be necessary." When would a beatification be likely? Ordinarily, a diocesan inquiry itself takes at least a year, and the Vatican-- whose Congregation for the Causes of Saints already has a long backlog of pending cases-- ordinarily takes another 10 years or more to investigate the candidate, issue a decree affirming that the individual lived a life of "heroic virtue," and then await the official recognition of a miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession. However, since the cause for Mother Teresa has already been speeded by an unprecedented papal intervention, it may be foolish to apply the ordinary rules to this case. Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 20:46:23 -0800 (PST)
X-Sender: elpeffer@mail.jps.net (Unverified)
To: Subject: Food for thought to rescue family life! Ed
TO: J. F. Thanks for the biased and brief L.A. Times article. I wish we
had the Pope's recent talks in full, and that's why I am sending out this
rare historic talk by Mother Teresa. Forgive the length, but there are
some gems hidden therein!
The following should speak for itself -- especially to the Catholic church
in America where contraception is not uncommon for Catholics with advice
from their Catholic doctors -- and so, priests and hierarchy feel ill
equipped to preach the prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae and the advantages
of NFP. I hope you will find great value in the following information.
E.L.P. 2/ 19/ 99
*********
The 1979 Nobel Peace Prize lecture of Mother Teresa was
published in neither the secular nor Catholic press, and one can assume
that most clergy including hierarchy were unaware of Mother Teresa's work
promoting Natural Family Planning worldwide, as she mentions in Calcutta
alone over 61,000 fewer unplanned births. (See paragraphs 15, 16, 17-- the
middle of her talk -- 20 years ago, one city!).
The prophetic Encyclical on Human Life (Humanae Vitae) is avoided
by Catholics in America, and by the average pastor or teacher of religion
and especially by America's hierarchy, apparently. The Encyclical
repeatedly emphasizes "responsibility" in regard to conception and condemns
contraception, reflecting also Thomas Aquinas' theology.
Dr. Richard Wetzel, OB/Gyn in the Diocese of Orange, California,
has written an excellent book, Sexual Wisdom, which has been acclaimed by
leaders of many faiths including Mormon and Jewish. Beyond the book he has
commented in his discoveries and in his own family that Natural Family
Planning is "the greatest hidden secret in the Catholic Church." He is
available for speaking, and may be contacted at (714) 963-9210 or E-mail at
rwetzel@gte.net
Another useful resource person is Dr. Judith Reisman, whose books
exposing the evil 45-year plague of sex disinformation from Alfred Kinsey's
Institute in Indiana, and Hugh Hefner's confessed reliance on Kinsey in
launch of his Playboy philosophy and empire -- are resources covered up by
silence or media embarrassment.
When you consider that Clinton has vetoed legislation that would
disallow abortion of a full term baby, and that porno king Howard Stern has
a syndicated national TV show locally and popular following in the playboy
society, it does not appear the Fatima challenges have been met, nor does
it seem possible Mary's promised eventual triumph of her Immaculate Heart
has occurred. Rather, perhaps our once great and once moral nation may
face punishment of its own undoing -- politically and militarily with Red
China, North Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Iran, and all.
We can count on the advantage of today's unsurpassed advantages in
communication by people-to-people -- via TV, radio, printed media, FAX,
Email and other speedy technology. With the mysterious Y2K threat ahead,
this is an important time to keep our Catholic orthodoxy and fidelity to
the wise leadership of Pope John Paul II.
Edward L. Peffer
10490 Gregory Circle, Cypress, CA 90630-4309 FAX/tel 714 220-0210
Email elpeffer@jps.net
THE NOBEL LECTURE 1 As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace
Prize, I think it will be beautiful that we pray the prayer of St. Francis
of Assisi which always surprises me very much. We pray this prayer every
day after Holy Communion, because it is very fitting for each one of us.
And I always wonder that 400-500 years ago as St. Francis of Assisi
composed this prayer, that they had the same difficulties that we have
today as we compose this prayer that fits very nicely for us also. I think
some of you already have got it -- so we will pray together:
2 Let us thank God for the opportunity that we all have together
today, for this gift of peace that reminds us that we have been created to
live that peace, and Jesus became man to bring that good news to the poor.
He, being God, became man in all things like us except sin, and he
proclaimed very clearly that he had come to give the good news.
3 The news was peace to all of good will and this is something that
we all want --- the peace of heart. And God loved the world so much that
He gave his Son -- it was a giving; it is as much as if to say it hurt God
to give, because He loved the world so much that He gave his Son, and He
gave Him to Virgin Mary, and what did she do with Him?
4 As soon as He came in her life, immediately she went in haste to
give the good news, and she came into the house of her cousin. The child
-- the unborn child -- the child in the womb of Elizabeth, lit with joy.
He was that little unborn child, was the first messenger of peace. He
recognized the Prince of Peace; he recognized that Christ has come to bring
the good news for you and for me. And as if that was not enough -- it was
not enough to become a man -- He died on the cross to show that greater
love, and he died for you and me and for that leper and for that man dying
of hunger and that naked person lying in the street not only of Calcutta,
but of Africa, and New York, and London, and Oslo -- and insisted that we
love one another as He loves each one of us. And we read in the Gospel
very clearly: love as I have loved you, as I love you; as the Father has
loved Me, I love you. And the harder the Father loved Him, He gave Him to
us, and how much we love one another, we too must give each other until it
hurts.
5 It is not enough for us to say, " I love God, but I do not love my
neighbor." St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you
don't love your neighbor. How can you love God Whom you do not see, if you
do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?
And this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to
hurt.
6 It hurt Jesus to love us. It hurt Him. And to make sure we
remember his great love, he made himself Bread of Life to satisfy our
hunger for His love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for
that Love. We have been created in His image. We have been created to
love and be loved, and then He has become man to make it possible for us to
love as He loved us. He makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the
homeless one, the sick one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted
one, and he says "You did it to me." Hungry for our love, and this is the
hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find.
It may be in our own home.
7 I never forget an opportunity I had in visiting a home where they
had all these parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an
institution and forgotten, maybe. And I went there, and I saw in that home
they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking toward the
door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on their face. And I
turned to the sister and I asked, "How is that?. How is it that the people
they have everything here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why
are they not smiling?"
8 I am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying one
smile. And she said, "This is nearly every day. They are expecting, they
are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt
because they are forgotten." And see -- this is where love comes. That
poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. Maybe in
our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick,
who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we
there? Are we there to receive them? Is the mother there to receive the
child?
10 I was surprised in the waste to see so many young boys and girls
given into drugs. And I tried to find out why. "Why is it like that?"
And the answer was, "Because there is none in the family to receive them."
Father and mother are so busy they have no time. Young parents are in some
institution and the child takes back to the street and gets involved in
something. We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace.
11 But I feel a great destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it
is a direct war, a direct killing, direct murder by the mother herself.
And we read in the scripture, for God says very clearly. "Even if a
mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have curved you in
the palm of My Hand." We are curved in the palm of His Hand; so close to
Him, that unborn child has been curved in the Hand of God. And that is
what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even a mother
could forget something impossible -- but even if she could forget -- "I
will not forget you."
12 And today the greatest means, the greatest destroyer of peace is
abortion. And we who are standing here -- our parents wanted us. We would
not be here if our parents would do that to us.
13 Our children, we want them, we love them. But what of the
millions? Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India,
with the children of Africa where quite a number die, maybe of
malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but many are dying deliberately by the
will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace
today. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to
kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing in between.
14 And this I appeal in India, I appeal everywhere, "Let us bring the
child back, and this year being the Child's Year, what have we done for the
child?" At the beginning of the year I told, I spoke everywhere and I
said, "Let us make this year that we make every single child born, and
unborn, wanted." And today is the end of them year. Have we really made
the children wanted?
15 I will give you something terrifying. We are fighting abortion by
adoption. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent words to all the
clinics, to the hospitals, police stations, "Please don't destroy the
child, we will take the child." So every hour of the day and night it is
always somebody -- we have quite a number of unwed mothers -- tell them
come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you, and we
will get a home for the child. And we have a tremendous demand for
families who have no children, that is a blessing of God for us. And,
also, we are doing another thing which is very beautiful. We are teaching
our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the
street, Natural Family Planning.
16 And in Calcutta alone -- it is all in Calcutta -- we have had
61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they
practice this natural way of abstaining, of self control, out of love for
each other. We teach them the temperature meter (method) which is very
beautiful, very simple. And our poor people understand. And you know what
they have told me? Our family is healthy, our family is united, and we can
have a baby whenever we want. So clear -- those people in the street,
those beggars -- and I think that if our people can do like that how much
more you and all the others who can know the ways and means without
destroying the life that God has created in us.
17 The poor people are very great people They can teach us so many
beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank, and said, "You
people who have evolved chastity, you are the best people to teach us
Family Planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love
for each other>" And I think they said a beautiful sentence. And these
are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not got a home
where to live, but they are great people.
18 The poor are very wonderful people. One evening we went out and
we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most
terrible condition. And I told the sisters, "You take care of the other
three; I take care of this one that looked worse." So I did for her all my
love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her
face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only, "Thank you" --
and she died.
19 I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I
asked, "What would I say if I was in her place?" And my answer was very
simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would
have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain or
something. But she gave me much more -- she gave me her grateful love.
And she died with a smile on her face -- as that man whom we picked up from
the drain, half eaten by worms, and we brought him to the home. "I have
lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel,
loved and cared for." And it was wonderful to see the greatness of that
man who could speak like that, who could die like that without blaming
anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an
angel -- this is the greatness of our people.
20 And that is why we believe what Jesus has said, "I was hungry, I
was naked, I was homeless; I was unwanted, unloved, uncared for --, and
you did it to Me."
21 I believe that we are not real social workers. We may be doing
social work in the eyes of the people. But we are really contemplatives in
the heart of the world. For we are touching the body of Christ 24 hours.
We have 24 hours in this presence, and so you and I. You, too, try to
bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays
together stays together. And I think that we in our family, we don't need
bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace -- just get together, love one
another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each
other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in
the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and
we with our prayer, with our sacrifice are beginning at home. Love begins
at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the
action that we do. It is to God Almighty -- how much we do does not
matter, because he is infinite, but how much love we put in that action.
How much we do to him in the person that we are serving.
22 Some time ago in Calcutta we had great difficulty in getting
sugar. And I don't know how the word got around to the children, and a
little boy of four years old, a Hindu boy, went home and told his parents,
"I will not eat sugar for three days. I will give my sugar to Mother
Teresa for her children. After three days his father and mother brought
him to our house. I had never met them before, and this little one could
scarcely pronounce my name. But he knew exactly what he had come to do.
He knew that he wanted to share his love.
23 And his is why I have received such a lot of love from you all.
From the time that I have come here I have simply been surrounded with
love, and with real, real understanding love. It could feel as if everyone
in India, everyone in Africa is somebody very special to you. And I felt
quite at home, I was telling sister today. I feel in the (Oslo) convent
with the sisters as if I am in Calcutta with my own sisters. So completely
at home here, right here.
24 And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor
here, right in your home first. And begin love there. Be that good news
to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbor. Do you
know who they are?
25 I had the most extraordinary experience with a Hindu family who
had eight children. A gentleman came to our house and said, "Mother
Teresa, there is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for so
long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And
I saw the children -- their eyes shining with hunger. I don't know if you
have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And she took the
rice, she divided the rice, and she went out. When she came back I asked
her, "Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple
answer, "They are hungry also." What struck me most was that she knew --
and who are "They"? A Muslim family -- and she knew. I didn't bring more
rice that evening because I wanted them to enjoy the sharing.
26 But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with
their mother because she had the love to give. And you see this is where
love begins, at home. And I want you -- and I am very grateful for what I
have received (Nobel funds). It has been a tremendous experience and I go
back to India -- I will be back by next week, the 15th, I hope and I will
be able to bring your love.
27 And I know well that you have not given from your abundance, but
you have given until it has hurt you. Today the (local) little children,
they gave -- I was so surprised -- there is so much joy for the children
that are hungry. That the children life themselves will need love and care
and tenderness, like they get so much from their parents.
28 So let us thank God that we have had this opportunity to come to
know each other, and this knowledge of each other has brought us very
close. And we will be able to help the children of the whole world,
because as you know our sisters are all over the world. And with this
Prize of Peace, I am going to make the home for many people that have no
home. Because I believe that love begins at home, and if we can create a
home for the poor, I think that more and more love will spread. And we
will be able through this understanding love to bring peace, be the good
news to the poor. The poor in our own family first, in our country and in
the world.
29 To be able to do this, our sisters, our lives have to be woven
with prayer. They have to be woven with Christ to be able to understand,
to be able to share. Because today there is so much suffering -- and I
feel that the passion of Christ is being relived all over again. Are we
there to share that passion, to share that suffering of people? Around the
world, not only in the poor countries! But I found the poverty of the West
so much more difficult to remove.
30 When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a
plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that
hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved,
terrified, the person that has been thrown out form society -- that poverty
is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult. Our sisters
are working amongst that kind of people in the West.
31 So you must pray for us that we may be able to be that good news.
But we cannot do that without you. You have to do that here in your
country. You must come to know the poor. Maybe our people have material
things, everything, but I think that if we all look into our own homes, how
difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each other, and that the smile
is the beginning of love.
32 And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile
is the beginning of love, and once begin to love each other, naturally we
want to do something. So you pray for our sisters and for me and for our
brothers, and for our co-workers that are around the world. That we may
remain faithful to the gift of God, to love Him and serve Him in the poor
together with you. What we have done we would not be able to do if you did
not share with your prayers, with your gifts, this continual giving. But I
don't want you to give me from your abundance. I want that you give me
until it hurts.
33 The other day I received $15 from a man who has been on his back
for 20 years and the only part that he can move is his right hand. And the
only companion that he enjoys is smoking. And he said to me, "I do not
smoke for one week, and I send you this money." It must have been a
terrible sacrifice for him. But see how beautiful, how he shared. And
with that money I bought bread and I gave to those who are hungry, with a
joy on both sides -- he was giving and the poor were receiving.
34 This is something that you and I -- it is a gift of God to us to
be able to share our love with others. And let it be as it was for Jesus.
Let us love one another ,as He loved us. Let us love him with undivided
love. And the joy of loving him and each other -- let us give now, that
Christmas is coming so close.
35 Let us keep that joy of loving Jesus in our hearts, and share that
joy with all that we come in touch with. And that radiating joy is real,
for we have no reason not to be happy because we have Christ in us. Christ
in our hearts, Christ in the poor that we meet, Christ in the smile that we
give and the smile that we receive. Let us make that one point: that no
child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a
smile, especially when it is difficult to smile.
36 I never forget some time ago about 14 professors came from the
United States from different universities. And they came to Calcutta to
our house. Then we were talking about that they had been to the home for
the dying. (We have a home for the dying in Calcutta, where we have picked
up more than 36,000 people only from the streets of Calcutta, and out of
that big number more than 18,000 have died a beautiful death. They have
just gone home to God.) And they came to our house and we talked of love,
of compassion. And then one of them asked me, "Say, mother, please tell us
something we will remember." And I said to them, "Smile at each other,
make time for each other in your family. Smile at each other."
37 And then another asked me, "Are you married?" And I said, "Yes,
and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at Jesus because He can be
very demanding sometimes." This is really something true. And there is
where love comes -- when it is demanding, and yet we can give it to Him
with joy!
38 Just as I have said today, I have said that if I don't go to heaven
for anything else I will be going to heaven for all the publicity because
it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really something ready to
go to heaven.
39 I think that this is something, that we must live life beautifully.
We have Jesus with us and He loves us. If we could only remember that God
loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as He loves me, not in
big things, but in small things with great love, then Norway (Oslo, site of
Nobel Peace awards) becomes a nest of love. And how beautiful it will be
that from here a center for peace of war has been given. That from here
the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. If you become a burning
light in the world of peace, then really the Nobel Peace Prize is a gift of
the Norwegian people. God bless you!
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