VATICAN CITY: THOUSANDS FLOCK TO ST PETERS SQUARE IN THE VATICAN WHERE POPE JOHN PAUL WILL BEATIFY MOTHER TERESA

Record ID: 647062

  • Title: VATICAN CITY: THOUSANDS FLOCK TO ST PETERS SQUARE IN THE VATICAN WHERE POPE JOHN PAUL WILL BEATIFY MOTHER TERESA
  • Date: 19th October 2003
  • Summary: (U2)VATICAN CITY (OCTOBER 19, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PEOPLE DESCENDING FROM BUSES TO WALK TO ST. PETERS SQUARE 0.05 2. SV WOMEN GETTING OFF A BUS 0.13 3. SLV PEOPLE WALKING TOWARDS ST. PETERS SQUARE 0.19 4. SV GROUP OF ALBANIAN PILGRIMS WALKING WITH THE ALBANIAN FLAG 0.26 5. MCU (English) AGRON KRASNICI FROM KOSOVO SAYING: "Its a great feeling for the whole world and specially for us Albanians because Mother Teresa is from Albania and its a special feeling for us." 0.36 6. MCU (English) UZO EBIGBO FROM LONDON, U.K, SAYING: "We are very excited to see a very humble woman who worked tirelessly, its a saint of today, somebody we know, been made you know, a saint." 0.50 7. SLV PEOPLE WALKING TOWARDS ST. PETERS BASILICA 0.55 8. SLV AMBULANCE PASSING BY 1.02 9. LV OF ST. PETERS SQUARE 1.06 10. SLV FIRST AID TEAMS ON THE GROUND 1.13 11. CU FIRST AID EQUIPMENT IN THE AMBULANCE 1.16 12. SV FIRST AID TEAM 1.21 13. SLV PEOPLE GATHERED BEHIND BARRIERS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE SQUARE 1.26 14. SV PILGRIMS PRAYING AVE MARIA 1.35 15. SV/MCU SWISS GUARDS AT THE ENTRANCE TO VATICAN (2 SHOTS) 1.42 16. LV/SV OF PILGRIMS ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 1.53 17. SV NUNS QUEUING 1.56 18. PAN MORE PEOPLE AT THE ENTRANCE 2.09 19. SLV OF ST. PETERS BASILICA 2.16 20. LV PEOPLE RUNNING TOWARDS THE SQUARE 2.21 21. SV/SLV PEOPLE ENTERING/ PEOPLE WITH THE INDIAN FLAG (3 SHOTS) 2.41 22. LV CROWDS AT THE BASILICA 2.47 23. SV/SLV PEOPLE ENTERING (2 SHOTS) 2.54 24. SLV VIEW OF THE BASILICA 3.04 25. SV MISSIONARY OF CHARITY ORDER NUNS ENTERING 3.11 26. LV OF PEOPLE ENTERING THE SQUARE (2 SHOTS) 3.23 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VATICAN CITY
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PNS6NX01XJQ2GQC8A1Y9N4RO
  • Story Text: Thousands have flocked to St. Peters
    square in the Vatican where Pope John Paul will on Sunday
    beatify Mother Teresa.



    Pilgrims and tourists arrived at the Vatican gates
    as early as 5am on Sunday (October 19) to attend the
    ceremony and get a glimpse of the frail Pope, who so
    admired the 1979 Nobel peace Prize winner that he bent
    Vatican rules to rush her towards sainthood.

    Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Saint of the Gutters
    who personified selfless devotion to the poor, joins the
    Roman Catholic Church's ranks of the blessed at a Vatican
    ceremony on Sunday.

    Pope John Paul will say the Mass of beatification in St
    Peters Square before an expected crowd of hundreds of
    thousands.

    Rescue teams and police forces were at large around the
    Vatican, where groups of pilgrims from all over the world
    queued patiently, carrying flags and pictures of the Pope
    and Mother Teresa.

    "Its a great feeling for the whole world and specially
    for us Albanians, because Mother Teresa is from Albania and
    its a special feeling for us," said Agron Krasnici, An
    ethnic Albanian from Kosovo.

    "We are very excited to see a very humble woman who
    worked tirelessly, its a saint of today, somebody we know,
    been made you know, a saint," said Uzo Ebigbo, a tourist
    from London.

    Beatification is the last step before sainthood in the
    Catholic Church and the 83-year-old pope, whose Parkinsons
    disease is taking an increasingly visible toll on his
    health, considered bypassing the step to make her a saint
    immediately.

    That went too far for traditionalists in the Church,
    which requires proof the candidate performed one miracle
    before beatification and a second one before canonisation
    as a saint.

    But the world's most famous nun, a frail figure in her
    trademark white sari-style habit with blue borders,
    inspired such respect among Catholics and non-Catholics
    around the world that John Paul easily speeded her way
    towards beatification.

    The beatification comes three days after John Paul
    celebrated his 25th anniversary as head of the
    billion-strong Catholic Church. The ailing pope will end
    an unusually active week by installing 31 new cardinals on
    Tuesday.

    Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian born in the now
    Macedonian city of Skopje, won world fame and respect for
    working for decades among the sick and dying, the homeless
    and the lepers in one of the worlds most impoverished
    cities.

    She launched her Missionaries of Charity order in 1950
    with only 12 nuns. It has grown to 4,500 sisters in 133
    countries running homes, schools and hospices for the poor
    and dying.

    Apart from caring for the poor, a cause close to John
    Paul's heart, Mother Teresa shared the pope's outspoken
    opposition to abortion and artificial birth control.

    While she never hid the Christian inspiration to her
    vocation, Mother Teresa's work with Calcutta's rejected
    people won admiration from the city's Hindus and Muslims
    and even the communists who have ruled West Bengal state
    for 26 years.


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