By Gretchen Keiser

Mother Teresa of Calcutta has decided to establish a foundation in Atlanta, sending four of her Missionaries of Charity to work in the archdiocese with the very poor.

"She wants to be there as a person from Jesus, to help the poorest of the poor," according to Sister M. Dolores, MC, who is regional superior for the Missionaries of Charity for the eastern United States and Canada.

Sister M. Dolores, accompanied by another sister, came to Atlanta November 17 and visited several places where care is given to the homeless and to AIDS patients. While the specific ministry of the order here has not been decided, Sister M. Dolores said they saw during their visit "a great need among the homeless who have AIDS.

"We want to be the presence of Jesus there," she said. "Ask everyone to pray for us that this foundation will be what God wants it to be. We want to be instruments of His love and channels of His grace."

The foundation will be made "as soon as possible," the regional superior said, saying that she had received direction from Mother Teresa to make the Atlanta foundation immediately. The sisters were taken around Atlanta by Father Henry Gracz, vicar for clergy for the archdiocese, at the request of Monsignor Edward Dillon, vicar general. On November 18, the Council of Priests unanimously endorsed the foundation being made.

The Missionaries of Charity asked to meet with Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, and received his blessing, Father Gracz said.

Mother Teresa is aware of the archbishop's illness and the difficulties being faced by the archdiocese, the Missionary of Charity said. "She is praying for him and she told me to give a Miraculous Medal to him. Mother has great faith in the Miraculous Medal," the image of Mary revealed to St. Catherine Laboure in a vision in 1830.

Mother Teresa's prayer is, "Mary, Mother of Jesus, make me all right," the sister said.

Besieged by requests from many dioceses to send her sisters, Mother Teresa was first invited to Atlanta by Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, who wrote her in 1988. She replied that she was unable to send members of her order to Atlanta at that time.

The matter lay dormant until this year, when Dr. Sharne Sheehey, an Atlanta physician who has worked with the homeless thought the St. Joseph's Mercy Mobile Health Clinic and Grady Hospital's AIDS clinic, wrote the famed Religious, asking for help.

The "Dear Mother Teresa" letter proved to be the spark to reopen contact between the Missionaries of Charity and the archdiocese. Dr. Sheehey, who has worked in medical missions in the Third World, including India, wrote that the need among the homeless with AIDS in Atlanta was similar to the depravation there.

The response from the order directed Dr. Sheehey to seek the support of Archbishop Lyke, since Mother Teresa will send her sisters only at the request of the diocesan bishop.

Archbishop Lyke formally renewed the invitation first issued by his predecessor, Monsignor Dillon said. Even then the response from the order was not encouraging.

Suddenly several weeks ago, the archdiocese was contacted and told the request had been approved.

"It's great! I didn't think it would ever happen," Dr. Sheehey said November 20. One of those to meet with the visiting sisters, she called them "single-minded."

"They know what they want to do and they are going to do it," said Dr. Sheehey, who served as medical director of the Mercy medical van that brings care to street people, and who is now working at Grady's infectious disease clinic.

Others the sisters met with, accompanied by Father Gracz, were Anita and Jim Beaty of the Task Force for the Homeless, Blessed Sacrament sisters at the Maisha House of Prayer on Boulevard in Atlanta, Shrine of the Immaculate Conception pastor Father John Adamski, and Sister Carmel Rondinelli, RSM, spiritual advisor to the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

The people and archdiocese of Atlanta are being asked to look for a "simple place where they can live and carry on their ministry," Father Gracz said, probably in the heart of the city and near Grady. "They are asking us to actively look for places."

Traditionally the host diocese provides a place for the sisters to live and they then live on charity.

In addition to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they take a fourth vow to "give ourselves wholeheartedly and freely to the poorest of the poor," Sister M. Dolores said.

When they first arrive, the sisters will "visit the poor families, carrying God's love from our hearts to their hearts. The Lord will have to tell us what is the best. We allow Him to do it."

Sister M. Dolores said she would accompany the four sisters, but would not be among those to remain. Seventeen sisters will take final vows on December 17 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1950 to care for leprosy sufferers in India, the order recently began to care in the United States for persons with AIDS.

Monsignor Dillon said the news was "very, very positive."

Describing the reaction at the Council of Priests, he said chairman Father Pat Bishop asked for a consensus after the presentation joking, "All those who are prepared to vote against Mother Teresa raise your hands." No one did.

"More than their simplicity of life, their simplicity of faith is immensely impressive," Monsignor Dillon said. "I think it can only be good for the archdiocese."