The Message of Mother Teresa Hailed

TIJUANA —  Mother Teresa brought her message of hope Wednesday to this teeming border city, where she will soon send 34 more members of her religious order to minister to the thousands of impoverished and homeless people who live on the streets and in the slums.

After an afternoon press conference in which she wooed the Mexican press, Mother Teresa addressed parishioners of a church that is still under construction and ended a grueling day with an appearance at the Bullring by the Sea, where she was honored at a Mass attended by more than 20,000 people.

She was greeted at the bullring by cheering throngs, who waved white handkerchiefs and tissue paper and shouted “Viva Madre Teresa!” Dozens of Tijuana police kept a visible presence inside and outside the bullring to prevent any disturbances. None were reported.

Mexican Bishops Invited

The Mass, which was celebrated by Tijuana Bishop Emilio Berlie, also included several Mexican bishops who came from as far away as Matamoros, which is across the border from Brownsville, Tex. Bishop Berlie announced at the Mass that Mother Teresa is sending three more nuns to join the four from her Missionaries of Charity Order already in this city of 1.3 million.

In addition to the nuns, Berlie said, six priests from the same order are being transferred from New York to Tijuana and they will be joined by 25 assistants. At the press conference, Mother Teresa said she is sending the additional members of her religious order because “the Bishop of Tijuana has invited us to come.”

In recent years Tijuana’s population has been swollen by an influx of immigrants from other parts of Mexico and Latin America who come in search of work or for an opportunity to enter the United States illegally. The city has several wealthy districts but a greater number of colonias, where the poverty rivals that found in Calcutta, India, where Mother Teresa works with the poor.

At the press conference, Mother Teresa received several rounds of applause from Mexican reporters. But the biggest cheers came when a U.S. television reporter asked her to compare the poverty in Tijuana with the relative affluence of San Diego, where Mother Teresa visited Tuesday.

“I never compare. . . . I go where I’m invited. . . . In rich countries there is a poverty of a different kind,” said Mother Teresa, to the applause of the Mexican press.

She opened the press conference by informing reporters that she would answer any questions except those dealing with politics. Mother Teresa answered the questions in English, and her responses were translated into Spanish by an assistant. Politics plays no role in her religious work, and she decided to accept the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize on the condition that the committee that awarded her the prize agree that it was honoring God and not her, she said.

Clutched Rosary

“The Nobel Prize was given as an act of love and peace. But I accepted it only on the condition that they give it to me for the glory of God and in the name of the poor. . . . So, there is no room for politics,” she said.

Throughout the press conference and her other appearances, the tiny nun clutched a set of rosary beads wrapped around both her hands, which she kept cupped in front of her. She would frequently respond to the shouts of adulation by cupping both hands in front of her face and bowing.

Mother Teresa was driven in a makeshift “mother-mobile.” The car was actually an old Dodge Colt with the roof cut off. A plywood platform was bolted on the back and a veranda welded above. Mother Teresa sat in a chair screwed to the platform and waved to small crowds that lined the three-block route from the press conference site to the church.