Sister Mary Ann Walsh, media relations director for the USCCB, has a poignant remembrance of Mother Teresa and Father Peyton, both on their way towards canonization. I was especially struck by this line regarding Mother Teresa: “The diminutive nun made the richest of the rich know that the poorest of the poor were around them.”
The credibility of the Church is demonstrated most fully when we attend to the poorest of the poor. At a time when that credibility has been challenged, and deservedly so, by the crimes of men like Father Maciel, we must not only recall the good works of Mother Teresa and Father Peyton, we must heed their call to holiness. If the New Evangelization means anything, it means that we must tell their stories and those of others who care for the poor and cling to the Lord and to His Mother.
