Cardinal Dolan: Mother Teresa's Sainthood Comes As No Surprise
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Pope Francis has approved a miracle attributed to Mother Teresa's intercession, paving the way for her sainthood.
The Vatican on Friday set no date for the canonization, but it is widely believed that it will take place in the first week of September to coincide with the 19th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death and during Francis' Holy Year of Mercy.
"It's going to take some getting used to, saying Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta next September. But hallelujah what great news for the church," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
The Vatican said Francis approved a decree attributing a miracle to Mother Teresa's intercession during an audience with the head of the Vatican's saint-making office on Thursday.
Dolan told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb Pope Francis' decision to canonize Mother Teresa came as no surprise to him.
"Because they're very much alike. There's nothing artificial about them. What you see is what you get," Dolan said. "There's a simplicity, a sincerity, there's a warmth and a radiance that just comes from their persona. I don't know about you, but I think the world needs that and we especially need it this Christmas season."
The miracle in question concerned the inexplicable cure of a Brazilian man suffering from a viral brain infection that resulted in multiple abscesses. By Dec. 9, 2008, he was in a coma and dying, suffering from an accumulation of fluid around the brain.
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa's canonization case, said in a statement Friday that 30 minutes after the man was due to undergo surgery, he sat up, awake and without pain. The surgery did not take place and a day later the man was declared to be symptom-free.
The Vatican later attributed the cure to the fervent prayers to Mother Teresa's intercession by the man's wife, who at the time of his scheduled surgery was at her parish church praying alongside her pastor.
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