Encountering Mother Teresa. Linda Schaefer

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      Uncle Hugo had a deep devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. He recounted the dozens of pilgrimages he had taken to Lourdes and how he had tried to convince Mother Teresa to travel with him to the holy grotto.

      For instance, at a gathering he attended in Rome for Mother Teresa’s eighty-second birthday, Uncle Hugo attempted to persuade Mother to go to Lourdes. “An Irishman can never be presented without a toast,” he said. So when she came into the room, “I toasted Mother Teresa and invited her to Lourdes.” Instead, Mother Teresa invited Uncle Hugo to Calcutta. Although he had spent decades working with the Missionaries of Charity in New York City and Tijuana, Mexico, he had never visited the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in India. He admitted to “holy blackmail”: He tried to get Mother Teresa to agree to go to Lourdes if he would go to Calcutta.

      If he was going to travel to Calcutta, Uncle Hugo wanted to be “Santa Claus” by bringing gifts for about five hundred children. To his shock, when he asked Mother Teresa how many children she cared for in India, she told him there were fourteen thousand children in her care. “Santa Claus will have to get another sleigh and another set of reindeer!” he told her. When he asked Sister Monica, who generally accompanied Mother Teresa, what she thought the children needed most from Santa Claus, her answer further surprised him: The children needed soap. Uncle Hugo said, “I didn’t know the president of Dial, but I found out and called him in Phoenix and asked for fourteen thousand kegs of soap. He sent thirty thousand kegs of soap. Quaker Oats then provided oatmeal, and Hershey Chocolates donated chocolate for the children living in Mother Teresa’s orphanages in Calcutta.”

      Uncle Hugo also managed to collect, through donations, thousands of statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus to send to Calcutta. Then Uncle Hugo said he heard his angel yelling in his ear, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You are going to Calcutta without Lourdes water.” “So I ordered the water in time to arrive in Calcutta for Christmas.” Before he left, Mother Teresa warned him not to travel to the city because of growing animosity between religious groups. He traveled to Calcutta anyway, but at the airport an official refused to allow him through customs. He told the official that Mother Teresa had invited him but that he did not have written permission. As he told me: “My angel whispered in my ear. ‘Why don’t you tell them to look outside the airport?’” They did, and there were two sisters from the Missionaries of Charity waiting for their friend. Uncle Hugo was then permitted to leave the airport with the sisters. He had brought boxes of Lourdes water with him on the flight to India. Mother Teresa attributed the holy water to helping him through his difficulties entering India.

      Mother Teresa nicknamed Hugh Markey “Uncle Hugo.” He was a regular contributor and volunteer to the Missionaries of Charity. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Uncle Hugo was a beloved patron to charitable organizations, particularly to the Missionaries of Charity. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Hugo brought holy water from Lourdes to the children under Mother Teresa’s care in Calcutta. He also had thousands of bottles shipped to Calcutta. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Hugo greeting Sister Nirmala Joshi, M.C., who succeeded Mother Teresa as head of the Missionaries of Charity. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Mother Teresa often told volunteers to show “joy” in the presence of patients and children. Dana Jarvis, an elementary school teacher from Chicago, gives a special needs baby love and a compassionate touch. (1995)

      In 1995, Kari Amber McAdam, a Dartmouth College student, easily fed lunch to three children at the same time. Since then, Kari has married and earned her doctorate in psychology.

      Sister Ita, a native of Indiana, lifts a baby from her crib with tenderness and a joyful smile.

      Hugo had a close relationship with Mother Teresa over thirty years. He was President of Markey & Sons, Inc. in New York City. He would also take the time to drive Mother Teresa around the city in his Lexus when she was in town. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Hugo posing with Missionaries of Charity sisters, including Sister Nirmala and Sister Lysa. PHOTO COURTESY OF BERNARD MARKEY

      Uncle Hugo told me more stories about the Lourdes water and its impact on Mother Teresa’s sisters. Sister Charmaine, who was in charge of the orphanage, told Uncle Hugo that a baby was saved by the Lourdes water he had shipped to Calcutta. They had picked up a baby girl, whom they named Mary, from a dustbin. Her tiny arms were so emaciated that they could not give her an IV. Instead, Sister Charmaine used an eyedropper filled with Lourdes water to feed the baby. The child recovered. Uncle Hugo said that most of the Indian nuns had never heard of the Lourdes apparitions, but as a result of Sister Charmaine’s story the sisters requested Lourdes water to send to their relatives. He then ordered another fifteen thousand bottles of the water to be shipped to Calcutta. Ultimately, word traveled, and Uncle Hugo had another fifty thousand bottles of Lourdes water distributed to families in India.

      The first miracle that led to Mother’s beatification was the cure of an Indian woman, whose cancer disappeared.

      Uncle Hugo saw Mother Teresa for the last time when she visited New York in 1995. “There was a Mass for her, and she was sitting in the front row next to Sister Nirmala. I went up to Mother and I had been trying for six years to get her to Lourdes. Sister Nirmala was dying to go to Lourdes. Mother said, ‘We go this year.’” Sadly, however, Mother never made the trip to Lourdes, and Uncle Hugo’s dream to accompany her there was never realized.

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      Uncle Hugo was on the commission of the cause for canonization for Mother Teresa, which he said included thirty-eight thousand pages of testimony. Evidence is gathered to prove the heroic virtues practiced in the life of the person being petitioned for. These include wisdom, fortitude, and charity. Once the documents are collected, they are presented to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. The first miracle that led to Mother’s beatification was the cure of an Indian woman, whose cancer disappeared. She attributed her cure to the intercession of Mother Teresa. “God interceded to perform this miracle,” Uncle Hugo said.

      According to Uncle Hugo, the sisters requested that Mother be canonized at the time of the beatification, and hundreds of her followers petitioned the Vatican. “They knew the Holy Father would not live that long for another miracle,” said Uncle Hugo. “The petitions were so great the Holy Father formed a council of cardinals and asked their advice — if he could canonize her at the same time.” According to Uncle Hugo, the cardinals advised Pope John Paul II not to do it because it would set a precedent and they would be under pressure in the future to accelerate the canonization of other candidates.¹

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