New York City, N.Y., Aug 26, 2010 / 12:58 pm
Thousands of New Yorkers will gather for Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Thursday evening to pray and commemorate the life of Blessed Mother Teresa. The event is being organized by area Albanian Catholics who seek to continue her works of charity and faith.
Our Lady of Shkodra Church, an ethnic Albanian parish in Hartsdale, New York, is arranging the 7 p.m. Mass at the cathedral on the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth. She had visited the parish church at its previous location in the South Bronx, near where she opened her first Missionaries of Charity mission in the United States.
The church is named after a miracle in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra, where Mother Teresa's family hails from.
Organizers of the Mass said in a press release that although the saintly woman served everyone regardless of background, “she held a special place in her heart for her Albanian kinfolk, especially during the dark days of the cold war when Albania’s communist government banned religion in the country.”