Mother Teresa: Most Recent Blessed of the Catholic Church

The following speech was delivered by Franz-Llesh Grishaj at the Troy Community Center on 19 October 2007, as the Albanian-American Community of Michigan consisting of Catholics, Muslims, and Orthodox believers organized a special event celebrating the beatification of Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II.

Honorable Clerics, distinguished guests, sisters and brothers;
Good evening! Truthfully, an event of enormous joy and deep solemnity unites us, the Albanian-American Community of Michigan, as well as all Albanians world-wide. Earlier today, in St. Peters Square, the Catholic Church and its faithful along with millions of television viewers witnessed the beatification of Mother Teresa by the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, who coincidently, just commemorated the 25th anniversary of his Pontificate.
Why would a nation that is overwhelming Muslim, be celebrating the elevation of a Catholic nun into the realm of Blessed through the canonization process for sainthood? Holy Scripture answers this. Historically, the Albanians were pagans who converted to Christianity during the Apostolic Age by St. Paul himself as illustrated in his Letter to the Romans, 15:19; "…from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have finished preaching the gospel of Christ." Another biblical passage suggesting that the Albanians were among the first to hear and convert to Christianity is found in the Second Letter to Timothy (4:10), in which, St. Paul indicates that his trusted co-worker Titus evangelized in Dalmatia, a district in Illyricum. Documentary evidence also confirms that in A.D. 58 Bishop Apollonius was the overseer of 70 active Christian families in Durres. Not only does all of this support the thesis that Christianity has apostolic foundation in Albania, but it also verifies Durres as one of the oldest Bishoprics in the world.
Now, we can proudly and rightfully claim that the most recent blessed of the Catholic Church is of Albanian origin. Indeed, our rich spiritual heritage and tradition continues. Since the founding of the Church on Pentecost, we have given saints, popes, cardinals, doctors of the church, cleric-scholars and many martyrs to the Catholic Church specifically and civilization in general.
Rendering them homage, a few will be named. There were two Bishops of Rome: Pope Gaius also known as St. Caius (283-296), along with Pope Clement XI (1700-1721); Constantine the Great (306-337) - the founder of New Rome, who was also the first Roman Emperor to embrace Christianity and legalized the once persecuted Christian religion in the Empire with the Edict of Milan (313); The "Father of Biblical Science" Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius (331-420), more commonly known as St. Jerome who translated the inspired Word of God as revealed to the Judea-Christian tradition into the Latin Vulgate Bible; Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, our national hero, who in his courageous struggle for autonomy and faith earned him the title "Champion of Christendom," which was bestowed upon him by Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455), and would also be called, "Athleta Christi" by three of his successors (Calixtus III, Pius II and Paul II). As a footnote, let us not forget the Calvary that the Albanian Catholic Church and her loyal followers endured over its existence, especially during the Enverite Stalinist regime as they carried the Cross of the Lord, thus inspiring Pope John Paul II to describe it as "the heroic Church of Albania upset by a long hard persecution, but enriched by the testimony of its martyrs."
How proud we can now be that Blessed Mother Teresa has joined this pantheon of immortality. Mother Teresa, simply called "Mother" by her dearest admirers has also been called by millions around the world "a miracle" for being as she always insisted nothing more than "a pencil in the hands of the Lord." Truly awesome it is that this simple "pencil," an authentic "imitation of Christ," serving the "poorest of the poor" with so much love, compassion, and dignity has enlightened and inspired so many lives during the "century of megadeath" as the 20th century has been coined by Dr. Zbigniew Brzenzinski. "For me, Mother Teresa of Calcutta embodies Christian love in action" is how Malcolm Muggeridge described her. Also, how fitting an honor to have beatification bestowed to such a simple yet very profound philosophical messenger of spiritual love, harmony, and universal brotherhood for all humankind!!
Nevertheless, rather then solely celebrating the saintly deeds of Mother Teresa, we, as Albanians of various religious affiliations, however, find ourselves detracted from this most holy of honors due to the senseless need of certain countries and so called intellectuals who feel compelled to continue with the erroneous and false claims that Mother Teresa was either Yugoslavian or Macedonian. What shameful ignorance of scholarly testimony!
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is that she was Albanian! Instead of rehashing the same biographical information written so eloquently by Mother Teresa's top biographers like Malcolm Muggeridge, Eileen Egan, the husband and wife team of Jose Luis Gonzales-Balado and Janet N. Playfoot, David Porter, Navin Chawla, The Very Reverend Dr. Lush Gjergji, Genc Leka, Klajd Kapinova and others whose biographies illustrate not just a story of life - but rather a living testament of faith, love, and compassion that have inspired millions of readers, I will focus on the words of Blessed Mother Teresa herself.
On 25 July 1976, Mother Teresa visited her old friend Monsignor Dr. Zef Oroshi, founder of the first Albanian Catholic Church in the United States of America - Our Lady of Good Council in the Bronx, New York (1970). Even non-Catholic Albanian clerics and followers of the Orthodox and Muslim faiths participated, as is the case this evening, and an estimated 1,800 heard Mother Teresa say the following:
"…My prayer for you is that you and I and all the people of Albania and the whole world become holy. Holiness is not luxury for a few. Holiness is very simple duty for you and for me. So let us glorify God to holiness so that the world may know that we love one another and that we live up to our call: To be loved and to love, God Bless You!"

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December 1979, in Oslo, Norway, a reporter at a press conference asked Mother Teresa about the government in Albania, and may I add, with total disgust, that our country of origin was the only nation that completely ignored the event. The journalist posed the following question knowing that several years earlier the international media in shock brought indignation to the Hoxha regime for executing Father Shtjefen Kurti, a 74-year-old Catholic priest, for secretly baptizing an infant upon the request of the child's mother in a hard-labor camp (Mother's Teresa's brother Lazer Bojaxhiu would later inform Egan that Father Kurti was a distant cousin): "The Noble Peace Prize is the highest human recognition of the outstanding dedication and work of you and your sisters. We realize that your background is Albanian. It is known that in Albania people are persecuted for their religious beliefs. What can you say about this?

"…My Albanian people are always in my heart. I pray very much to our Lord that His peace may come to our hearts, in our families and in all the world. I pray for Albania that the Lord may help its leaders to see clearly because if they want to live in peace they should love one another… I think that the Albanian Church is experiencing the Good Friday, but our faith teaches us that on Good Friday, Christ's life doesn't end, but continues on the cross and ends with the resurrection. Our Albanian people should keep in mind this truth. This is the secret of Christian endurance. Christ gave his life so that He may become our life, present in each person, in each family, through their prayers… He certainly will not forget us. He is love and He wants nothing more than for people to love each other."

Along the same lines, Father Lush Gjergji also questioned Mother Teresa about the suffering of the Albanians, in which she responded:

"I know that my Albanian people are living very hard and difficult times but despite everything, and with a lot of sacrifices, they have remained faithful. I hope that they would continue in this way even in the future! I pray continuously for this purpose, for my people; this is the only help which I could give them for the time being…"

While conducting another interview with Mother Teresa on 17 June 1989 in Budapest, Father Lush Gjergji asked her: Do you have a message for your Albanian people who up to this date are still living through difficult moments? (Father Lush's question dealt directly with the political climate of the former-Yugoslavia: Slobodan Milosevic had reached his political peak in Yugoslav politics and his infamous terror campaign against the ethnic Albanians of Kosova was now in full motion).

"Yes, I always carry in my heart my Albanian people, and pray to God for peace and prosperity, for a better future. I pray that prayer would unite you to God and to your neighbor, to all the world. I wish to visit my sisters in our diocese, at Shkupi and Peja, as soon as possible, so as to be all together again. Spiritually, I am always united with you. How beautiful. This is the miracle of Our Lord, His love which unites us.
I wish to greet everybody with these words: I love you, God loves you, God blesses you!"

Then Mother Teresa took Father Lush's notepad and wrote the following words:
"I always pray to God for my Albanian people so that the peace of Christ would reign in every house, family and in all the world. Pray for me. May God be with you!"

The final quote that I will share was given to Jose Luis Gonzales-Balado and his wife Janet N. Playfoot as they prepared for their book on Mother Teresa, it was also reiterated in an interview Mother Teresa did with Father Lush Gjergji. This is the epitome of a self-defining statement that unequivocally proves who Mother Teresa is ethnically and more important, it signifies what her entire being was all about.

"I am Albanian by birth. Now I am a citizen of India. I am also a Catholic nun. In my work, I belong to the whole world. But in my heart, I belong to Christ."