Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate naming of a road dedicated to Saint Mother Teresa on September at in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern Indian state.
Hundreds of people are likely to attend the event including Housing and Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singh Deo, Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda and several legislators.
Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and head of Catholic Church in Odisha, Sister Mary Olivet of Missionaries of Charity (Odisha region head), Sister Samual MC (head of Missionaries of Charity House, Bhubaneswar) are also expected at the function.
Pope Francis will officially declare Mother Teresa as saint on that day in the Vatican. She is one of the icons and legends for the humanitarian and philanthropic services.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in its meeting on August 28, resolved to name a fly over road from Satya Nagar to Cuttack-Puri road as “Mother Teresa Road.”
This was at the request of Odisha Catholic Bishops’ Council (OCBC) chairman Archbishop Barwa.
“We are grateful to Odisha government for naming the road after Mother Teresa. It is our tribute to Mother Teresa for her invaluable contribution to humanity through her service and charity. Through this naming of a road, we all may remember the contribution of Mother Teresa and strive to serve the humanity in our own way in life,” said Archbishop Barwa told Matters India.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious order in Kolkata in 1950, which now has 5,160 members in 758 foundations (or houses) in 139 countries. At the time of Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, the congregation had 3,914 nuns in 594 foundations around the world globally. In 2012, the order had more than 4,500 nuns in 133 countries.
In Odisha, Missionaries of Charity has 18 houses. Mother Teresa first visited Bhubaneswar in 1974 and met then Odisha Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy and the Odisha Governor Akbar Ali Khan. Since then, Mother Teresa had visited Odisha several times.
Sister Mary Olivet, head of Missionaries of Charity in Odisha, said Mother Teresa founded the order to take care of the poorest of the poor—the sick, the abandoned, the dying, the leprosy and tuberculosispatients, mentally and physically challenged people.
“Mother Teresa and her members take care of those who are a burden to the human society. Her unshakable trust in God, made her to take a vow of giving-whole hearted and free service to the poorest poor, completely trusting in god and His providence for all their needs,” Sr Olivet added.
In Bhubaneswar the congregation has a home for the old, sick, abandoned women, tempera shelter for children, unwed mothers and women in distress. In Janla (near Khorda) it has the leprosy rehabilitation center.
Recently the Odisha government asked the congregation to take care of the mentally sick women and a few men roaming on the streets. At present around 90 of them avail the service in four different centers in Odisha.
In Odisha Missionaries of Charity has nine homes for the sick, abandoned and elders; six homes for children and three centers for leprosy patients and four for mentally sick.
Meanwhile, OTV, premier television network in the State, would broadcast a special feature of 30 minutes duration on Mother Teresa on September 4, said Jagi Mangat Panda, OTV co-founder of Ortel Communications Ltd. and its managing director.