Editor’s note: This is the eighth of several historical articles that were published in the April 16 issue of the AD Times in a special section for the 65th Anniversary of the Diocese of Allentown. To see the special section, click on AD Times at the top of AD Today, then Editions at right, then 04/16/26.
Mother Teresa, now also known as St. Teresa of Calcutta, visited the Diocese of Allentown twice throughout its 65-year history.
The Albanian Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity (MC) was not nearly as well known for her service to the poor when she visited St. Thomas More, Allentown in 1976.
Monsignor Robert Coll, then Pastor of St. Thomas More, extended an invitation to Mother Teresa. She visited the Diocese on April 27, 1976, to thank diocesan faithful for their $6,000 donation from Operation Rice Bowl (ORB) to the Missionaries of Charity.
“I had met her during a visit to India, and the Diocese agreed that we should assist her in helping the poor. She was delighted to visit us and to meet the people of Allentown,” said Monsignor Coll.
More than 2,000 sisters, priests, children, and faithful packed St. Thomas More to catch a glimpse of the 66-year-old nun clad in her cotton sari.
Speaking at a special Eucharistic Hour, Mother Teresa expressed her gratitude and appealed to the faithful to recognize the face of Christ in the poor, sick, and lonely.
Nineteen years later, on June 17, 1995, Mother Teresa paid another visit to the Diocese, arranged by Bishop Thomas Welsh and Monsignor Anthony Wassel, Pastor of St. Joseph, Mahanoy City, who had been with her at a prior event in Newark, N.J.
The then 84-year-old woman, whom the world called a “living saint,” was greeted with greater fanfare as her recognition for compassion to the poor had gained her worldwide acclaim and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.
She notified the Diocese six days before her arrival of her intention to end her U.S. trip by visiting the Missionaries of Charity convent that had opened in Mahanoy City in 1991.
Bishop Welsh celebrated a televised Mass at St. Joseph in honor of her visit. St. Joseph was merged with six other parishes in 2008 to form Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. It became St. Teresa of Calcutta upon her canonization.
With blue and white ribbons, symbolizing the colors of her religious order, fastened to nearly every light post, business, and home, Mother Teresa addressed the faithful before spending most of her visit with the estimated 30 sisters at the convent.
During her visit, Bishop Welsh also presented a $25,000 check to Mother Teresa from ORB.
After the ceremony and her address to the crowd, Mother Teresa and the sisters spent time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the parish’s Perpetual Adoration Chapel.
While conversing with Bishop Welsh, she requested a monstrance to take with her on her missionary trip to China. The parish of St. Richard, Barnesville, gifted their parish monstrance to her.
Mother Teresa died two years after her visit to the Diocese, on Sept. 5, 1997. She was beatified Oct. 19, 2003, and canonized on Sept. 4, 2016.
Header Photo: During her 1995 visit, Mother Teresa greets Bishop Thomas Welsh, center, and Monsignor Anthony Wassel.
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