KOLKATA: The yearlong birth centenary celebrations of Mother Teresa began on Thursday with a solemn mass here where Pope Benedict XVI exhorted her order -- the Missionaries of Charity -- to draw inspiration from her in serving the poor, the sick and the abandoned.

“I am confident that this year will be for the Church and the world an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work for you, her spiritual children,” the Pope said in a message to the MoC superior-general, Sr Prema. The Pope said Teresa exemplified the message of St John “... If God loves us, we ought also to love one another. God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
“I encourage you to draw constantly from the spirituality and example of Mother Teresa and in her footsteps, to take up Christ’s invitation: ‘Come be my light’,” he said.
The early morning mass at the first-floor chapel of Mother House was attended by Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi besides 60 priests.
Cardinal Toppo said Mother Teresa’s life was driven by a passion to build lives through forgiveness, healing, giving them respect and through making them true human beings in the image and likeness of God.
“That is precisely why she wanted to come to India and become a Loreto sister. That is what she did through her teaching and forming girls of character in the school, the cardinal said. He also said that before the Church became more conscious of its ecological duty, Mother Teresa realised her duty towards nature and wanted it to be included in her life.
“Her insistence on poverty in life is (also) a fine illustration of this,” he said.
Archbishop of Kolkata Lucas Sirkar, Bishop of Baruipur Salvadore Lobo, Archbishop Emeritus Henry D’Souza were present as also Fr Brian Kolodeijchuk, the postulator for the cause of Teresa’s sainthood. Balloons and pigeons were released after the mass.
Meanwhile, the Mother Teresa International Film Festival, 2010, got underway on Thursday with the premier of ‘Mother Teresa’ a documentary made by two American sisters about the Nobel laureate nun.
“I declare the festival open,” Sr Prema said at the function at Nandan film complex.
Organised in collaboration with the MoC, the UNESCO and the Catholic Relief Service, the festival opened with the 82-minute documentary made in 1986 by Ann and Jeanette Petrie of the US.
Shot in 24 locations spanning 10 countries over five continents, the film is seen as a definitive work on the Nobel laureate nun.
“When I came to India to make the film, I wanted to keep God out of it. In course of making it, I had to change my idea. I found it was impossible to separate Mother Teresa from God,” Petrie said while introducing the film.
In another development, the BBC, after some initial feet-dragging, has agreed to lend the first-ever documentary on Mother, ‘Something Beautiful for God’ by Malcolm Muggeridge to the festival.
The director of MTIFF, 2010, Mr Sunil Lucas said the film had been accommodated in the screening schedule.
The four-day festival will have 50 screenings of 15 films from the US, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and India.
Among the films are two features: ‘In the Name of God’s Poor’ starring Charlie Chaplin’s daughter Geraldine as Mother Teresa and ‘Madre Teresa’ in which celebrated actor Olivia Hussey plays the nun.
Mr Lucas said that after closing here on August 29, the festival will travel to Guwahati, Shillong, Imphal, Agartala, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Indore, Ahmedabad, Udaipur and some other parts of the country.
It will also travel later to Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines and Nepal, he said.