India: PM Modi Asked To Lead Mother Teresa Canonization Delegation
By UCA News
Indian Catholic Church officials have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally lead a delegation to the September canonization ceremony of Mother Teresa at the Vatican.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian bishops’ conference met with Modi on April 25 in New Delhi. He was accompanied by Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, the conference’s secretary-general, and Father Joseph Chinnayyan, deputy secretary-general.
The group also asked the prime minister to formally invite Pope Francis to visit India.
Cardinal Cleemis asked Modi to personally lead India’s official delegation for the canonization of Mother Theresa scheduled for Sept. 4 at the Vatican. The prime minister “appreciated the sentiments of the bishops and assured that he would favorably consider the proposal,” Father Chinnayyan said.
The church delegation also thanked Modi for the government’s continued efforts to rescue Salesain Father Tom Uzunnalil, who was abducted in Yemen early March. They requested the prime minister to “personally intervene for the safe release” of the priest.
