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Vatican plans to canonise Mother Teresa

The Vatican, the highest authority of the Roman Catholic Church, is now considering declaring Mother Teresa a saint.

But the involved process of canonisation cannot start before 2002, five years after her death -- a waiting period designed to make the decision more objective and less emotional.

Though the process towards declaring sainthood often takes decades, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger believes it may be sped up in Mother Teresa's case.

The Pope is also in favour of a quick canonisation but would nonetheless strictly observe the rules and maintain impartiality, Cardinal Ratzinger said.

For now, Mother Teresa's Calcutta diocese has the task of gathering documents about her life, which would be passed on to the Vatican for close scrutiny.

Pope John Paul II has praised Mother Teresa, who died a year ago, as one of the formative figures of this century.

Millions around the world venerated the Catholic nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1979 for charitable work.

The process of collecting documents as the preliminary step, introduced in the 10th century, aims to control canonisation and prevent abuse. The Pope will have the final word. Saints do not have to be martyrs, like Saint Sebastian who was shot dead with arrows. But they must have special virtues and, in general, be known to have performed at least two miracles.

The first step is beatification, attesting the person in question a heroic degree of holiness.

Even ''god's servants'' are allowed their weaknesses. The holy Theresia of Lisieux (1873-1897) admitted she often fell asleep during sermons and even prayer and had problems with spiritual exercises and the sacrament of penance.

The French nun was nonetheless a guiding figure for Mother Teresa. Both women saw holiness as a task for every human being. As Teresa once said, ''It does not matter how much we do, but how much love, honesty and belief we put into our actions.''

UNI

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