Blessed Mother Teresa's order thrilled with sainthood

In 1986, Mother Teresa came to Lafayette.

Mother Teresa filled the 16,000-seat Cajundome with Catholics, clergy and the curious. And before she left town, Mother Teresa set up a Missionaries of Charity order.

And today, they’re still here doing the good work of Blessed Mother Teresa; and, yes, the nuns are thrilled about their founder’s canonization Sunday.

On television, EWTN will carry the canonization live at 4 a.m. and rebroadcast 11:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. the same day; and again midnight Monday.

Also Monday, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel will be the celebrant of a special 10 a.m. Mass to celebrate the canonization of St. Teresa of Calcutta.

A nun who answered the phone at the Missionaries of Charity order recently simply stated: “We’re all excited about that - that we can have a saint in our society.” And before she gave her name, the nun turned the phone over to Sister Denise.

“Well, to her it doesn’t make any difference – she’s already in heaven,” said a delightfully wry Sister Denise.

“For us, it’s just a beautiful thing that they are able to get together and pray and thank God for this person He blessed us with,” Sister Denise said. “I think that’s the overall feeling. There’s a lot of faith in this place, in the air. Grateful for all the charity she did, including the people of Lafayette.

“She could’ve just stuck with India,” she said. “But she also involved America.”

Sister Denise, on her third tour in Lafayette, has been here for two years. When the order was founded, the nuns’ house was across the street from St. John’s Cathedral; now they’re based out of north Lafayette.

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“It’s going very well. People are coming to us. We’re mainly working with children with after school programs, teaching catechism, visiting the families,” said Sister Denise. “But we also go to the nursing homes and visit hospitals and day care centers.

“It’s pretty easy because it’s all Catholic,” she said.

When Mother Teresa died in 1997, Sister Denise was working in an order in the Appalachia region of Kentucky in a coal mining town. Compared to Acadiana, there aren’t so many Catholics in that region so Sister Denise didn’t know what to expect.

She was pleasantly surprised.

“They were very, very respectful. Even the governor came,” said Sister Denise. “I have to admit it was an eye opener.”

Born in 1910, Blessed Mother Teresa was christened Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu‎. At 18, she joined the Loreto order of nuns in 1928. On a train from Kolkata (then called Calcutta) to Darjeeling, the nun was inspired to found the India-based Missionaries of Charity order.

With Blessed Mother Teresa becoming St. Teresa of Calcutta, it’s anybody’s guess if another saint will come from the Missionaries of Charity order.

“It’s the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s all I can say,” Sister Denise said. “We have some beautiful, beautiful sisters. I have seen unspeakable charity and the real spirit of sacrifice.

“But, of course, nobody’s Mother. Nobody has that charism that the Holy Spirit gave her to actually start the order during those times and in that way,” she said, adding, “I have been seeing beautiful sisters, unspeakable charity in my order.”