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Fifty-four Missionaries of Charity are in Rome this week for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Young People, where they are approaching young people one by one to invite them to spend time with Christ in all-day Eucharistic Adoration and to learn about the mission and message of their founder, St. Teresa of Calcutta. / Credit: Courtney Mares
Rome, Italy, Aug 1, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).
Just steps away from the exuberant crowds of Gen Z pilgrims chanting and taking selfies in St. Peter’s Square, religious sisters in white saris with blue stripes kneel barefoot in silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
More than 50 sisters of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity are in Rome this week for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Youth offering a striking contrast to the vibrant festival atmosphere filling the Vatican’s streets. Their mission: “To give them Jesus,” said one 25-year-old sister from Spain, who declined to be quoted by name in accordance with the congregation’s rules.
The sisters, known for their vow of extreme poverty and life of service to “the poorest of the poor,” are praying for the souls and intentions of the thousands of young people gathered in the Eternal City. But they’re not stopping there.
In their no-frills style, the sisters are also taking to the streets, approaching young people one by one along the Via della Conciliazione — the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Basilica — inviting them to spend time with Christ in all-day Eucharistic adoration and to learn about the mission and message of their founder, St. Teresa of Calcutta.
They press Miraculous Medals into open palms and quietly teach short prayers beloved by Mother Teresa, including: “Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.”
Jubilee pilgrims in Rome can visit the sisters near the Vatican at the Pius IX Pontifical School at Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro, 1, where the Missionaries of Charity have set up a welcome center with a small exhibit featuring Mother Teresa’s sari, sandals, and other personal belongings.
Mother Teresa’s blood, preserved on a piece of cotton, is exposed for veneration as a first-class relic, and visitors are encouraged to leave handwritten prayer intentions in a shoebox. The sisters gather these daily and place them near the altar during Mass.
The exhibit also includes a video presentation of Mother Teresa’s life, with images and excerpts from her speeches, playing in an adjacent room. For some young visitors, this is their first encounter with the saint. One sister recalled a moment when a young pilgrim asked her: “Mother Teresa? Who is that?” — a question that underscored the importance of their presence at the youth jubilee.
The sisters — who usually avoid being photographed or quoted — have made an exception for this special outreach to young people. Still, the young Spanish sister, born after Mother Teresa’s death, said she prays that any photo taken of her would lead people not to her but to Christ.
She pointed to a favorite line from a prayer based on the words of St. John Henry Newman — whom Pope Leo XIV will soon declare a doctor of the Church — that the Missionaries of Charity recite daily after Communion: “Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!”
Together with the sisters at the jubilee is Father Sebastian Vazhakala, the co-foundeder of the contemplative branch of the order with Mother Teresa, who gave talks for some of the young pilgrims.
Vazhakala told CNA that he thinks that the encounters taking place between the sisters and the young pilgrims could help more young people to discover their vocations, not only with the Missionaries of Charity, but also with other congregations.
“Definitely God is the one that does the calling,” he said. “But we have to create an atmosphere for it … inspiring and instilling in the hearts of people the desire for God and the desire for commitment.”
“Not everybody can have the same vocation, but at least they can come to know God better, come to love God better, and so come to know the meaning of their life.”
Vazhakala also shared some of his favorite memories from working alongside Mother Teresa for more than 30 years.
He recalled one instance during their work together on the streets of Calcutta in the 1960s when a man, sick and homeless, was brought in for help — not for the first time.
Vazhakala, then a young priest, told Mother Teresa: “There is no sense of taking this man. … This man has been here at least 10 times. Now when he gets well, he will go out to the street, and then they will bring him back again.”
He remembers that Mother Teresa replied: “Are you living tomorrow and yesterday? Because it doesn’t matter whether he came yesterday or will come back tomorrow. But this man is in need of your help now. If he needs your help now, don’t ask questions. Do it.”
Vazhakala said Mother Teresa taught him to live in the present moment, which she saw as a gift from God. He remembered a time when after receiving the Nobel Prize she was asked by a journalist what she considered to be the most significant day of her life.
“Today,” was Mother Teresa’s reply.
“‘I can do something today. I can love people. I can help others. I can pray.’”
At this year’s Jubilee of Youth, the Missionaries of Charity quietly echo that message — in their prayers, their presence, and their patient invitation to pause and encounter the living Christ today.
St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credi: cinemavision/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Aug 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Thursday that St. John Henry Newman will be declared a doctor of the Church. The 19th-century English saint — a former Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism — will join 37 other saints who have been given the same honor.
Born in London and baptized into the Church of England in 1801, Newman was a popular and respected Anglican priest, theologian, and writer among his peers prior to his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and later made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.
As a Catholic, Newman deepened and contributed to the Church’s teaching, thanks to his broad knowledge of theology and his keen insight into modern times, grounded in the Gospel. His body of work includes 40 books and more than 20,000 letters.
He died in Edgbaston, England, in 1890. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on Sept. 19, 2010, and canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 13, 2019.
The title “doctor of the Church” recognizes those canonized men and women who possessed profound knowledge, were superb teachers, and contributed significantly to the Church’s theology.
Traditionally, the title has been granted on the basis of three requirements: the manifest holiness of a candidate affirmed by his or her canonization as a saint; the person’s eminence in doctrine demonstrated by the leaving behind of a body of teachings that made significant and lasting contributions to the life of the Church; and a formal declaration by the Church, usually by a pope.
While their teachings are not considered infallible, being declared a “doctor” means that they contributed to the formulation of Christian teaching in at least one significant area and this teaching has impacted later generations.
Not quite half of the saints revered as doctors in the Catholic Church are also honored in the Orthodox church since they lived before the Great Schism in 1054.
The most recent doctor of the Church to be named was St. Irenaeus of Lyon, with the title “doctor unitatis” (“doctor of unity”), in 2022. Pope Francis had previously in 2015 named as a doctor of the Church St. Gregory of Narek, a 10th-century priest, monk, mystic, and poet beloved among Armenian Christians.
Other notable saints who are doctors of the Church include St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Francis de Sales, among others.
The Vatican has not yet confirmed the date of Newman’s formal proclamation as a doctor of the Church.
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