Rev. Fr. John Solomon spoke to ICM Editor-in-Chief Verghese V Joseph on his experience of meeting Mother Teresa in Calcutta
While serving as a Parish Priest at Sacred Heart Church in Bengaluru during 1992-99, parishioners there urged me to undertake a hefty task of renovating the church interiors that had badly worn out over many years. It was around this time that we found out that the church would turn 100 years in 1994. After going through the records and the inscription on church bells, we realised that the church was inaugurated way back 1894. It was time to celebrate the centenary of the church!
To grace the auspicious occasion on 15 October that was decided by Archbishop Rt. Rev. Dr Alphonse Matthias, I decided to invite Mother Teresa in person! My maiden Calcutta (now Kolkata) sojourn was no less than God’s providence. After reaching Calcutta by flight at 11.30 am, a Good Samaritan Dr. Battacharya, a scientist who had come to Bangalore to conduct classes at the Tata Institute, helped me reach Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, a good 50 km deviation from his route. He was happy to help me out in appreciation of Mother’s service to the poor.
The Missionaries of Charity sisters greeted me with a smile and told me that Mother would be back by evening from New Delhi and that I was welcome to join them for the Eucharistic celebration at 6 a.m. on Monday, September 25, 1995. An interesting aspect was that she was called Mother at a young age unlike other young nuns who are called Sisters.
In my eagerness on seeing Mother Teresa, my eyes swelled with tears during the Mass. After the Mass, she had some foreign visitors to attend to and asked me to wait in the sacristy and reminded the sisters to take me for breakfast. However, I decided not to have breakfast till I met Mother and briefed her about the Sacred Heart Centenary programme. After 40 minutes or so, she came and enquired why I hadn’t taken coffee and soon began preparing coffee for me because she never discouraged any priest and she had such reverence for priests. I was so thrilled to meet her and wished her with folded hands and garlanded her with a Karnataka sandalwood garland. Then as I genuflected by holding her blessed hands and requested her to bless me which she refused saying that I was a consecrated person and that I had to bless her, so I obeyed her.
Then again holding her blessed hands I told her, “Now I am asking you as my Mother to bless me.” She smiled and put both her hands on my head — invoked the Holy name of Jesus to bless me. Then I placed my written request with her and told her that I don’t expect an immediate reply but to go through my request and then answer me the next day. “I don’t mind staying till you give me a positive answer for Bangalore to have your darshan to thousands of simple people, children who are longing to see your holy presence. Everyone knows you are a living saint,” I added. She immediately corrected me saying, “Please don’t say that. We are only HIS servants to give HIS love to others.”
These words really touched me. This was my first audience with Mother Teresa on 25 September 1995! The next day, I had the opportunity to celebrate the Mass with their Chaplain. After the Mass, Mother with her assistant met me and expressed her inability to come to Bangalore on 15 October 1995 as she was already preoccupied. So I told Mother I will meet her tomorrow after consulting my Parish Council.
On the third day of my stay, I had the privilege to concelebrate Holy Mass with Papal delegate Cardinal who was enroute to Bangladesh. He had dropped in to visit Mother and asked me to preach in English while he celebrated Mass in Latin. It was the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul. After Mass, the Cardinal enquired about my visit and I explained to him the reason of my visit. The Cardinal in turn spoke to Mother Teresa about my plan and she gracefully agreed to look into my request.
After seeing off the Cardinal and looking at her appointment calendar, and along with secretary and programme secretary, Mother came to me with a smile and again expressed her inability. Then immediately, one of the sisters told me that she would be free on 24 and 25 October 1995. I requested the sister to block those dates and informed her that I can postpone the Centenary programme if it was possible for Mother to visit Bangalore. I, then, immediately wrote a request in her appointment calendar and received her consent for Bangalore on 24 and 25 October, which I had insisted.
It was a great jubilation for me when I got the consent from Mother. I immediately arranged for 5000 handbills to be printed with her signature with help of Mr. Eranimus of St. Xavier’s School and Fr. Vincent Lobo, the local parish priest.
On the night of September 27, I received a call from Mother’s Home inviting me to celebrate Mass for them on the following day. There I distributed 100 handbills and on 10 handbills I took Mother’s signature. The sisters were surprised and wondered how I had managed to get the handbills printed that too within a short time. I replied, “All with the blessings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and your willingness to visit Bangalore for the Sacred Heart Church Centenary celebration”. With these word I reconfirmed her consent.
Experiencing these moments, I believe God is indeed great and I wrote this prayer. “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus I Trust in Thee”. Everything is possible through God’s providence. I only acted as an instrument without any hesitation.
On my return to Bangalore on 29 September, I learnt from newspapers that solar eclipse fell on 24 October 1995 at 8.00 a.m. I was worried and constantly prayed that the eclipse should not disturb Mother’s visit to Bangalore. By the grace of God, Mother was not worried at all and she took an early morning 5.30 am flight and reached safely in Bangalore at 8.30 am.
At the liturgical celebration, the then Archbishop of Bangalore Rt. Rev. Alphonse Matthias welcome the Noble laureate Mother Teresa for the public function. The then Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. Deve Gowda honoured Mother and appreciated her humanitarian service and granted five acres of land for the Missionaries of Charity to continue God’s work.
During her stay in Bangalore, Mother also visited other institutions such as Cathedral Composite College to lay the foundation for a new library at the request of Mr. John Zachariah, the principle of the college. She then proceeded to St. John’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore run by Catholic Bishops Conference of India. Very Rev. Dr. Percival Fernandes, Dean of the college welcomed Mother and she addressed the doctors, nurses and the people gathered there.
On 25th morning at 7.30 a.m., Mother left for Calcutta. I had the privilege to accompany her to the airport and bid farewell.
Mother’s visit to Bangalore brought blessings to thousands of people and it was a special and unique privilege for the people of Bangalore to have glimpse of the living saint.
When Mother Teresa attained her heavenly abode on 5 September 1997, it saddened the entire world and at Sacred Heart Church, a special memorial mass was offered and prayers continued till the funeral service held on 13th September 1997 and I had the privilege to participate in the funeral service held at Santosh Indoor Stadium in Calcutta.
At Sacred Heart Church, we celebrated the 40th Day memorial Service and a public meeting was held in the honour of Mother. During the public meeting, a signature campaign was launched to name the adjoining road as Mother Teresa Road and Mother Teresa Circle. I personally took up the matter with the Chief Minister through the local MLA and accordingly the road and the circle have been named after the Noble laureate on 11 June 1999.
On 25th October 2003, we had the solemn thanksgiving service for the gift of Blessed Mother Teresa at Francis Xavier’s Cathedral by mMost Rev. Dr. Ignatius, the then Archbishop of Bangalore.
To conclude, I was privileged to attend the canonisation of Blessed Mother Teresa on 4th September 2016.
In all my years as a priest, I had the great privilege of meeting two Nobel Laureates for Peace — Mother Teresa and the Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.