By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

“There may be words that can describe the destitute sick of Calcutta,” said Monsignor William Carlin, “but I don’t know what they are. The memories that I have will never go away.”

Monsignor Carlin was speaking about memories of the poor on the streets and memories of the unique service given to those poor by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her sisters.

The priest is a pastor in Washington, D.C. who was recently invited by Mother Teresa to come to Calcutta to give a retreat to herself and her superiors.

“Bombay is sort of orderly, although the poor are obviously there,” said the priest who was giving a renewal at St. John Neumann parish in Lilburn, “but Calcutta seems to be just a mass of people in need, and they seem to congregate near Mother Teresa’s hospital.”

“How she cares for them all is beyond me,” said Monsignor Carlin. “But she does. The sisters are such an example of gentleness and compassion as they treat those awful diseases. And that’s a story in itself. How on earth do they do it?”

The Washington pastor observed the daily routing of the sisters as they went to the streets every morning to tend the wounded and return to the hospital with the dying. He heard stories of limbs decaying as they were attended by the sisters. He saw teams of nuns cleaning open wounds and sitting at the bedside of dying lepers.

“They took me to see the patients in one part of the hospital and it was a scene of mercy in action. The large room was spotlessly clean. The groans from the patients were evidence of great pain and suffering. But it was all eased by the care of the sisters and Mother Teresa too. She constantly was bending over a patient with her assurance. “It will be alright – you are safe now,’”

As Msgr. Carlin left the large ward filled with beds, the famous nun said to him, “Come, Father, let me now show you my jewels.”

She led him to the special section for the dying. “Some of them she cradled in her arms. A young mother dying of liver cancer got her special attention. The woman pressed her head against the white sari of the nun as if to find final safety. Mother placed her hand on the woman’s bloated stomach. ‘It will be soon,’ she said, ‘Get the doctor.’”

None of these patients profess the Catholic religion. None are Christian. For the most part they are Hindu and no attempt is made to convert or baptize them. They are the desolate poor who have been sent to this holy woman to be served. When Mother Teresa is asked what her answer is to those who criticize her lack of protest against unjust governments and establishments she said, “There is only one answer – immediate service of the destitute.”

Msgr. Carlin spent 18 days with the sisters in Calcutta. “I first met the sisters in Washington 12 years ago and we have been friends ever since. Last year, when Mother was in this country, she invited me to speak with her superiors.”

Msgr. Carlin was especially grateful for the opportunity to see the work in Calcutta and also to gain some insights into the life of the famous Teresa of Calcutta.

“She is very simple and loves to talk about the poor,” says the priest. “She says the greatest need is not food, it is love. Some reporters once remarked that surely she could not save them all. She answered, ‘I don’t want to save them all, I just want to be with them,’”

“All I am trying to do,” she would say, “is live the gospel as Our Lord gave it to us.”

Commenting on her order of sisters which is called the Missionaries of Charity she says, “The Order will last as long as God wants it, then it will end.”

That end does not seem to be close at hand. Mother Teresa recently opened a new house for her sisters in Communist East Berlin.

“That’s a great story,” said Monsignor. “The bishop in Germany invited her to open a house. She went to East Berlin and saw the house she wanted. However, the lady who owned it was somewhat abusive to her and refused to deal with her on it. So, typical of Mother, she planted a medal on the grounds of the house and left. Sometime later she got word from the bishop that he had a house for her and the sisters. Guess what – that’s right, it was the same house. Things happen around her.”

“What impresses most,” says Msgr. Carlin, “is the simple life the sisters lead and the careful way she guides them. One sister told me that she ran from the section of the hospital reserved for incurables and told Mother Teresa she could no longer do the work. ‘Mother took me to the chapel,’ said the sister, ‘and we both just sat there for an hour. There she told me to wait in prayer for one more hour.’”

“What happened,?” I asked her. ‘I just go up and went back to the hospital and now I could never leave the work.’”

Msgr. Carlin gave two retreats to different groups of sisters during his days in Calcutta. “English is the language of the community,” says the priest. “Mother just asked that I speak slowly. Some of the sisters were new to English.”

The priest lived at the hospital and could testify that simplicity of life is the order of the day. “I had a small room, which was fine for my needs,” says Msgr. Carlin. “It was the green lizards walking on the walls and the ceiling that made me nervous.”

Mother Teresa told the Washington pastor that she and her sisters pray constantly for priests. “They need our prayers so much,” she said. During an interview with Pope John Paul last year, the famous Calcutta nun was urged to “continue her work for the poor, be of service to your sisters but also go throughout the world and speak to priests.” At every opportunity that request is carried out.

Monsignor William Carlin is also an active messenger of the word to priests. Frequently he gives retreats to groups of priests and seminarians. “Priests are now demanding greater spirituality in their lives,” says the pastor. “Support groups are gathering and new spiritual supports are being formed all over the nation. A wonderful new spirit among priests is emerging.”

Is the quiet cheerful man ready to return to Calcutta for more of Mother Teresa’s medicine? “She’s a dynamo and a saint,” he says. “But I think I’ll wait a few years before I go back. Let me rest on my experience for a while.”