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Vol. 79, No. 9
Thursday, March 4,1999
$.50 PER ISSUE
Contents
News 2-3
Commentary 4-5
Around the Diocese ... 6-7
Faith Alive! 8-9
Notices 10-11
Last But Not Least .... 12
Pope lifts five-year investigation period
for Mother Teresa’s cause
By John Thavis
Vatican City (CNS)
fter an outpouring of requests from all over the
world, Pope John Paul II has lifted the standard
five-year waiting period for investigating the saint
hood cause of Mother Teresa. “Because the response
was so great and insistent, the Holy Father decided
to go ahead,” Father Ciro Benedettirii, a Vatican
spokesman, said March 1.
The move allows a diocesan investigation into
Mother Teresa’s life to begin immediately. Church
sources in Rome said it was apparently the first time
such an exception had been made. Shortly after
Mother Teresa’s death in September 1997, the pope
said that he thought it was “necessary to follow the
normal way” of deliberating sainthood causes, even
in the case of Mother Teresa, whom many had con
sidered a living saint. The rules foresaw an interval of
five years before any official consideration. But the
pope changed his mind over the last 18 months, in
part because people from many countries and walks
Saint Mary's
By O. Kay Jackson
Savannah
n any weekday, the children
come in from school, get a hug
and the chance to talk about their day.
They collect a doggy kiss from any
(or all) of the four resident canines
and then head to their room.
The children, all 30 of them, are
residents of Savannah’s Saint Mary’s
Home on Victory Drive. They attend
13 different schools (11 public, two
private), which means an organized
day, start to finish.
“The first one leaves for school at
quarter to seven and the last one
leaves at 8:30. They’ve already made
their beds and had breakfast, of
course. They get home anywhere from
2:30 to 5:00 p.m.,” said Sister Johan
na Maguire, assistant administrator.
There has been a Saint Mary’s
Home in Savannah since 1875, when
three Sisters of Mercy and 25
orphaned young girls took up resi
dence in the country home of Mrs. J.
Lama on White Bluff. Before that
move, the girls had been cared for at
Saint Vincent’s Academy.
Other locations followed, and con
struction of the present home at 2170
East Victory Drive was begun in the
of life wrote to the Vatican to support sainthood for
Mother Teresa, according to Vatican officials.
“There was just a massive, spontaneous response
on the part of all sorts of people at every level of
society, both inside and outside the church. There
has been no other case like it,”’ said one informed
church official, who asked not to be named.
Vatican sources noted that the pope, as the
church’s supreme legislator, can always decide to
waive a rule like this. One of the reasons he did so
in this case was that the rule seemed superfluous for
Mother Teresa.
The waiting period was established as a norm to
make sure there is a true reputation of holiness
before the church begins working on a sainthood
cause, but Mother Teresa was someone who “had a
reputation for holiness throughout her life,” said one
official.
Even with the dispensation, the road to “official”
sainthood may not be short for Mother Teresa, be
cause local church experts and Vatican officials will
have to pore over the documentation and testimony
available. Because Mother Teresa was an interna
tional figure who founded a religious order and
established centers and hospitals all over the globe,
there is a lot of evidence to consider.
The sainthood process involves several steps:
— Declaration of a person’s heroic virtues.
— Beatification, in which a person is declared
“blessed” following certification of a miracle attrib
uted to the person’s intercession.
— Canonization as a saint, after another certified
miracle, in which the church declares that the per
son’s life is worthy of honor and imitation by all the
faithful.
Since her death, Mother Teresa has been cited sev
eral times by Pope John Paul as a model of holiness
in action. In a talk February 27 to medical and
church experts on the topic of dying, the pope said
Mother Teresa, along with many saints through the
centuries, had given the kind of care and attention
needed by people in the last phase of life.
“home away from home" offers tender, loving care
Children return to Saint Mary's
1930s. The home received its first
occupants in 1938.
Saint Mary’s ceased to be an or
phanage in the 1950s, becoming
instead “a home away from home” for
girls in need. In 1967, the mission
was expanded to include boys. Today
there are 14 girls in residence and 16
boys, ranging in age from six to 20.
Home after a long school day.
“It’s the first time we’ve had more
boys than girls,” Sister Johanna said.
Sister Johanna is a Sister of Mercy,
as is the home administrator, Sister
Alvin Seubott. Sister Johanna came to
work at Saint Mary’s in 1971. Before
that she taught chemistry and math at
Benedictine Military Academy — or
“B.C.” as it is known to Savannahi-
ans. Sister Alvin also started as a
teacher, but went into her present
work in a “home” in her native Balti
more before eventually being reas
signed to Saint Mary’s “almost 30
years ago.”
Sister Alvin arrived with “a German
Shorthair Pointer,” Saint Mary’s first
dog. The therapeutic value of that dog
to the children was quickly recog
nized and that tradition of pet therapy
today falls to three Labrador retriev
ers, “Henry,” “Betty” and “Mary
Catherine,” and one collie, “Bonny,”
along with two resident cats, “Sarah”
and “Lucy,” as well as a goldfish,
“Misty Blue,” who is much admired
by “Sarah.”
The well-behaved and affectionate
dogs are regarded as “co-therapists”
by the sisters. “They are really won
derful with the children,” Sister
Johanna said. “And with the staff,”
Sister Alvin added.
The children of Saint Mary’s are
children “with some specific chal
lenges,” Sister Johanna said, but like
all children they respond and flourish
in the atmosphere of love and consis
tency the home provides.
(Continued on page 3)
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