Mother Teresa to Get U.S. Recognition Day

The Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to designate the day of Mother Teresa’s funeral as a national day of recognition.

“Last week, we lost a saint when Mother Teresa passed away,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a sponsor. “We are poorer, but heaven is richer.”

Mother Teresa died Friday in Calcutta at age 87. She is to receive a state funeral there Saturday.

The Senate resolution, adopted 98-0, recognizes Mother Teresa for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of the poor and afflicted around the world.

The House observed a moment of silence Friday.

Meanwhile, in answer to calls for the Catholic Church to designate Mother Teresa as a saint, the Vatican on Tuesday said it would take time to determine her official status.

The Vatican has been flooded with requests that it waive the five-year waiting period before the canonization process can begin.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s authority on doctrine, said Tuesday it was unlikely that unusual measures would be taken to speed things up.

But Mother Teresa had a “life so resplendent before the eyes of all, that I don’t think it will be too long a process,” Ratzinger said.

The Nobel Peace laureate transformed a few schools and homeless shelters in Calcutta into a worldwide order, the Missionaries of Charity, that now runs 514 shelters and hospices worldwide. She dedicated her work to God, saying she saw him in every suffering human being.

To name her a saint, the Vatican must be convinced Mother Teresa has performed miracles.