La Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi rende noto quanto segue in merito alla chiusura della fase diocesana del processo di Beatificazione e di Canonizzazione della Serva di Dio Madre Teresa di Calcutta, Fondatrice delle Missionarie della Carità:

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has been informed by the Reverend Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, a priest of the Missionaries of Charity and Postulator of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Mother Teresa of Kolkata, Foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, that the Final or Closing Session of the Diocesan Inquiry into the life, virtues and reputation of holiness and intercessory power of the Servant of God will be celebrated in the Archdiocese of Calcutta in India on Wednesday , the 15^th of August 2001, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Cause of the Servant of God was officially begun in Calcutta on 26^th July 1999 almost two years after her death on 5 September 1997. Upon the request of His Grace the Most Reverend Henry D'Souza, Archbishop of Calcutta, the dispensation to initiate the Cause prior to the completion of the waiting period of five (5) years after her death was granted by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, in view of the widespread reputation of holiness and intercessory power enjoyed by the Servant of God throughout the world.

We have also been informed that the Acts of the Diocesan Inquiry instructed in Calcutta and those completed in six ( 6) other Dioceses will soon arrive in Rome. It is then that the Cause will enter the Roman phase of its study and, finally, its judgment by the various collegial organs established by the Supreme Pontiff in this Congregation for all Causes of Beatification and Canonization. After the Decree on the juridical validity of the Diocesan Inquiries has been published, there will be appointed a Relator for the Cause, whose duty it will be to study all the material gathered during the various Diocesan Inquiries and guide the writing and publication of the "Position on the Virtues" of the Servant of God.

The Archdiocese of Calcutta has also sent to this Congregation for the Causes of Saints the Acts of the Diocesan Inquiry into a supposedly miraculous cure, granted by God through the intercession of the Servant of God. In effect, the same procedure as outlined above for the study and judgment of the virtuous life of the Servant of God, must be followed for the study and eventual judgment of this supposedly miraculous cure obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God Mother Teresa of Kolkota.

[01308-02.01] [Original text: English]