Head of Indian state to attend Mother Teresa canonization

KOLKATA, India – The head of the Indian state where Mother Teresa worked with the destitute and ill says she’ll travel to the Vatican for the Nobel winner’s canonization later this year.

The chief minister of West Bengal state, Mamata Banerjee, says she’s accepted an invitation from the head of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to attend the Sept. 4 ceremony.

The Archbishop of Kolkata, Thomas D’Souza, said Monday that the Missionaries of Charity Superior General Sister Prema had invited Banerjee while congratulating her on last week’s re-election victory.

In March, Pope Francis announced plans for sainthood for Mother Teresa as the centerpiece of his yearlong focus on the Catholic Church’s merciful side. Mother Teresa won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the less fortunate in Kolkata, then called Calcutta.