New Delhi (AsiaNews/CBCI) – The Indian Church is celebrating the birth of two new churches, the first ones in India to be dedicated to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who died aged 87 in 1997, and was beatified by John Paul II on 19 October 2003.

The first of the two churches was inaugurated on Saturday 22 April in Parparganj, a highly populated area in eastern New Delhi, by the Archbishop, Mgr Vincent Concessao. The second church is being inaugurated today, 24 April, in the heart of Mangalore, "a Catholic stronghold" in the southern state of Karnataka.

Addressing the first inauguration, Mgr Concessao said: "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta has become a symbol of God's compassion for the poorest of the poor, and I am very glad she has been chosen to be the patron of the new church." The Auxiliary Bishop of Delhi, Anil Couto, added: "The new church building may be a worthy instrument in the hands of God to bind the people of God together as one fellowship in Christ and help them to witness to their Christian faith."

The church was set up thanks to the efforts of the "Foundation for the Church of Blessed Teresa," born on 19 October 2004, and made up of the entire parish of

Indraprastha. This group mobilised to find the means needed to construct the church under the leadership of the parish priest, Fr Victor D'Souza. "We are delighted to have the church dedicated to a saint whom we had seen and met, rather than to some unknown to us," he said.

The Church "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta" – built in Romantic style – is the 156th Catholic place of worship in Mangalore diocese. During the inauguration, presided over by Bishop Aloysius Paul D'Souza, a new biography about the "God's little pencil", written by Richard Alvares, will be distributed.