Scottish Catholic Observer

The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will preside over a consistory to approve the Canonisation of the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (above) on March 15, the final step in approving a new saint. It is widely believed he will then announce that Blessed Teresa’s Canonisation will take place on September 4.

The good news came as members of the Blessed Teresa’s order—the Missionaries of Charity—were mourning the loss of four of their own.

The Pope told the Faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that the four sisters killed by extremists in Yemen were victims of the ‘globalisation of indifference’ who had ‘[given] their blood for the Church.’

The Holy Father, who made the remarks after the Angelus prayer, also expressed his closeness to the congregation founded by Mother Teresa.

The four nuns—Sr Anselm, Sr Reginette, Sr Judith and Sr Marguerite—were shot dead by extremists at the care home they ran in Aden, Yemen’s capital, along with 12 residents of the home. Two of the nuns murdered were Rwandan, one was Indian, and the other was from Kenya.

The Pope said he prayed for those killed in the attack and for their family members.

“These are the martyrs of today!” he said. “[They are] not [on] the covers of newspapers, [they] are not the news, they that give their blood for the Church. These people are victims of the attack, of those who killed them and of indifference, of this globalisation of indifference, which doesn’t care. May Mother Teresa accompany her martyr daughters of charity in Heaven, and intercede for peace and sacred respect for human life.”