New Delhi: Admirers of Mother Teresa have reacted differently to the news that another set of her writing would be released ahead of her canonization on September 4 this year.
The book, “A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve,” is compiled by Fr Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Missionaries of Charity priest who led the case for Mother Teresa’s sainthood.
The Associated Press reported on May 24 that Mother Teresa’s collection of writings centered on the theme of mercy and compassion will be published by the Crown Publishing Group on Aug. 16, just a few weeks before her canonization.
This would not be the first time that a book by Mother Teresa will be released posthumously. In 2007, “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” a collection of her personal letters to her spiritual advisers, was released to the public. Fr Kolodiejchuk edited the book.
“I think that this is a real treasure for not only believers, but even doubters and skeptics,” Jesuit priest and author Rev. James Martin told Religion News Service at that time as he predicted that the book would challenge the perceptions many had of Mother Teresa.
“I think it also makes her much more accessible to the everyday believer,” said Martin. “It shows that even the saints struggle in their spiritual lives and that they don’t have it easier than we do. They sometimes have it harder than we do.”
However, Mother Teresa had previously asked most of the private letters that were included in the 2007 book to be destroyed, according to the Religion News Service as reported by Christianity Today.
“It’s atrocious to think that whatever you tell these people in confidence becomes popular,” said Gezim Alpion, author of “Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?”
Alpion had wondered then whether the Catholic Church was using the nun’s popularity by releasing her personal writings.
“Nothing is private in a canonization procedure,” concluded Rev. Richard McBrien, author of “Lives of the Saints” and professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.