Mother Teresa: a biography

NEW ADVENTURES
During the 1970s Mother Teresa continued her travels, both speaking
and opening new homes for the Missionaries of Charity. The decade

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opened with a home established in Amman, Jordan. In December 1970, a
novitiate, or center to train newcomers, opened in England; homes for the
Missionaries opened in London’s Paddington District and the Bronx, New
York City in 1971. Mother Teresa and her Missionaries did not shy away
from the world’s troubled spots: in 1972, a new foundation opened in
Belfast, Northern Ireland; in 1973, Mother Teresa opened another foun-
dation working with the 380,000 Arab refugees who lived and worked in
the Israeli-occupied Gaza strip. And so it continued throughout the de-
cade with the high point coming in 1979 when the Missionaries of Char-
ity opened 14 new foundations. As her missions spread across the world,
Mother Teresa enjoyed the support of many world leaders. In the United
States alone, she counted among her champions the wealthy Democratic
Kennedy family and former Republican president Richard M. Nixon.
She also began receiving a number of honors. Her first came in
1962 when she was awarded the Magsaysay Award for International Un-
derstanding. That same year she received the Padma Shri, known as the
Magnificent Lotus, India’s second highest award. First, after hearing the
news that she won, Mother Teresa would not accept it. However, after re-
ceiving permission, she traveled to New Delhi to accept the award from
the president of India at that time, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
In many cases, the awards came with substantial cash prizes. For in-
stance, the money received from the Magsaysay award was used to pur-
chase a home for children. In January 1971, Mother Teresa traveled to
Rome where she accepted a check from Pope Paul VI for £10,000 (appx.
$17,000) after being awarded the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. That
money was directed toward the building of a leper colony on land donated
by the Indian government. In 1971, she again traveled to New Delhi to
accept from the Indian government the Nehru Award for International
Understanding. In 1973, Mother Teresa became the first recipient of the
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. She was chosen out of a field of
2,000 nominations by a panel of judges representing the world’s major re-
ligions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
In every case, Mother Teresa graciously accepted each award in the name
of the world’s poor.