Forty-two years ago, St. Teresa of Calcutta, commonly known as Mother Teresa, spoke to the people of Louisville during a visit to Bellarmine College, now university.
More than 4,000 people gathered in Knights Hall on June 22, 1982, some even waiting hours in line to get one of the 2,000 tickets distributed to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Dr. Eugene Petrik, Bellarmine’s second president, invited Mother Teresa to the college after traveling to India to give her the Bellarmine Medal, the school’s highest award. In his welcoming address, Dr. Petrick said, “This is a great day for Bellarmine. A great day for Louisville.”
The foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, known for her care of the “poorest of the poor,” told stories of her work in the Indian city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) serving people who were dying and destitute.
She also used the opportunity to advocate for unborn lives, addressing abortion several times in her address, which was recorded and is available to view on Bellarmine’s website.
“The unborn child today has become the target of destruction. The target of killing,” Mother Teresa told her thousands of listeners.
“So in this beautiful day, this beautiful city, let us make one resolution: that no unborn child will ever feel unwanted, unloved, uncared. Never allow that to happen.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta
Then she asked them to make a resolution for the city of Louisville.
“So in this beautiful day, this beautiful city, let us make one resolution: that no unborn child will ever feel unwanted, unloved, uncared. Never allow that to happen,” said Mother Teresa, who was canonized in 2016.
Her listeners remained silent, offering no dissent or signs of disapproval.
St. Teresa spoke these words during a divisive time for the pro-life cause in Kentucky. Nine years earlier, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion-on-demand in the U.S. The years that followed were strung with debates over the opening and expansion of abortion facilities in Kentucky.
A year earlier, in 1981, the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, an abortion provider, had opened in Louisville. It closed after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022.
During a press conference at Bellarmine, a reporter asked Mother Teresa why she involved herself with the topic of abortion.
“We must all be concerned,” she answered. “Why are we all involved with the abortion? The unborn child is the poorest of the poor because they are the most unwanted. That is why the sisters and I are trying more and more to serve the child.”
In answer to another question, she critiqued the way of life in the United States, telling reporters, “I feel that the greatest disturbance that has come is the loss of the child in the family. If we can bring the child back, there will be peace, happiness and joy.”
Videos and documentation of Mother Teresa’s visit to Louisville can be found at the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University or online at https://www.bellarmine.edu/about/mother-teresa/.
