Sushma to lead Indian team for Teresa canonisation, Sept 4

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 30, 2016:  Vikas Swarup, the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, said  that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will lead a delegation to Rome to attend the canonisation of Mother Teresa by Pope Francis on September 4.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too, have accepted the invitation of Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity - a non-governmental organisation set up by the 1979 Nobel Prize winner for social service - to attend the ceremony in Vatican City.  The Ministry of External Affairs, however, did not disclose whether Mamata and Kejriwal would be part of the delegation.

"The external affairs minister will lead the delegation to attend the canonisation ceremony. Other members of the delegation are yet to be decided," Vikas Swarup, the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, added.
Arvind Kejriwal to attend :  Sources in the Delhi chief minister’s office confirmed that Kejriwal received and accepted an invitation for the ceremony from the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, the organisation founded by Mother Teresa in 1950.


The Delhi chief minister said that he had met Mother Teresa in 1992 and she had asked him to work at Kalighat in Kolkata. Kejriwal worked for Mother Teresa for few months before joining the Indian Revenue Service.  Kejriwal will be joined by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee who had earlier accepted the invitation to attend the sainthood ceremony.    Earlier in March this year, Pope Francis announced that the Mother would be made a saint in a canonisation ceremony on September 4, the eve of her 19th death anniversary.