Catholic Vancouver October 27, 2022
Mother Teresa film ‘a great witness’ of faith in action: director
By Nicholas Elbers
Father Paul Goo has been moved by the spirituality of Mother Teresa since his seminary days, when he packed his bags and volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity. So no surprise that he’s looking forward to next week’s local showings of Mother Teresa: No Greater Love.
What was a surprise for him was attending the Archbishop’s Dinner this week and seeing his devotion to St. Teresa of Calcutta come to life in front of him.
As he listened to the moving stories of three individuals who had been helped by Catholic Charities, he saw the embodiment of Mother Teresa’s book Come Be My Light. “For me, it was a moment when the Lord’s saying to Mother Teresa ‘come be my light’ took on flesh.”
Father Goo said he “found hope for our Church” when the crowd spontaneously gave the individuals a standing ovation. “Despite the tremendous suffering and evil they had experienced in life, they also encountered the Lord’s love for them concretely through the charitable arms of the local Church.”
Father Goo, who is Director of Vocations and Seminarians for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, is hoping as many people as possible make an effort to see Mother Teresa: No Greater Love, both to be inspired and to learn more about the great modern saint.
The film, which had a successful theatre run in the U.S., will be in Canadian theatres, including the Greater Vancouver area, Nov. 2 and 3. For ticket information visit motherteresamovie.com.
Produced by the Knights of Columbus and Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker and television producer David Naglieri, Mother Teresa: No Greater Love offers an examination of the saint’s life, mixed with a one-of-a-kind look of the work being done around the world by the Missionaries of Charity today.
Naglieri told The B.C. Catholic that the Missionaries of Charity had been searching for a way to present the life of Mother Teresa through film but found a lack of interest in Hollywood.
After seeing some of Naglieri’s films about St. John Paul II the sisters decided that a documentary would be the best course of action and approached the Knights to see if something could be done.
Naglieri attributes the success of the project to the close working relationship that the Knights have had with Mother Teresa over the decades.
The Missionaries of Charity opened their archives to the filmmakers and allowed film crews to have open access to their apostolates.
Naglieri emphasized how significant that access was, simply because the sisters are “not publicity seekers.” He was touched by the way many of the sisters would tell him during filming that the interviews were the most difficult thing they had ever done because they didn’t want the attention.
“That to me just showed the tremendous humility that they embody,” he said.
Like much of the modern world Naglieri first came to know Mother Teresa through Malcolm Muggeridge’s 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God.
While working on the film Muggeridge would have to step away from the camera because he was “overcome with emotion,” said Naglieri.
“I had a similar experience,” he said. “There is something deeply moving about seeing the sisters serving the poor.”
The film will serve as “a great witness of how we can bring our faith into the world and transform it into action,” said Naglieri.
““She saw the Eucharist in the face of the poor,” he said. “Mother Teresa can teach us how to find the face of Christ in those we encounter in our daily lives.”