VATICAN CITY (CNS): Archbishop Henry D’Souza of Calcutta, India, said he was confident Pope John Paul II would beatify Mother Teresa soon, possibly by the end of the year.
Calcutta archdiocese planned to formally close the cause’s initial information-gathering stage on August 15, when the process would move to the Vatican’s Congregation for Sainthood Causes, he told Fides, the Vatican’s missionary news service.
“Who knows, the beatification may even take place before the end of the year. I would not be surprised. It all depends on the work schedule of the congregation and the Holy Father’s decision,” he said.
In addition to transcripts of hundreds of interviews with people who knew Mother Teresa, as well as a “massive” amount of documentation relating to her life, he said the archdiocesan commission would be submitting case files for “a number of miracles” attributed to Mother Teresa’s intercession since her death in 1997.
“The case of a woman in Raiganj (India) cured of cancer is one of the miracles presented,” Archbishop D’Souza told Fides.
In Rome, a sainthood official familiar with Mother Teresa’s cause said it would be virtually impossible for her to be beatified within the year unless the Pope waived some procedural requirements.
