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Twenty years after Mother Teresa visited Dallas to found a local order of her Missionaries of Charity, a choice selection of her personal effects returned to Oak Cliff’s St. James Catholic Church last night, drawing a fair-sized crowd to a special evening mass.
Auxiliary Bishop of Dallas Mark Seitz presided over the service, which he closed with a story about the “secret mass” she gave on her last visit, while he was still in seminary. The service also included a prayer petitioning for her canonization — worshipers stuck around afterward to write letters to the Vatican, petitioning for her sainthood as well.
The south Oak Cliff church wasn’t nearly packed as other stops on this tour, but almost all of the crowd stuck around after the mass to pay their respects up close to Mother Teresa’s crosses, rosary and sandals, plus a vial of her blood and some hair.
A coterie of Missionaries of Charity sisters have been escorting her relics around the world, visiting packed churches from Boston to Chicago. After the 6 p.m. service yesterday, the sisters held the relics up by the altar, as worshippers filed past to touch or kiss them. Jump for more photos.
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