
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990                   TAG: 9004120152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CALCUTTA, INDIA                                LENGTH: Short

MOTHER TERESA STEPPING DOWN

Mother Teresa, the frail Roman Catholic nun who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work among the sick and dying, said Wednesday she was retiring as head of the religious order she founded in 1950.

"I have been leading the Missionaries of Charity for 40 years," Mother Teresa, 79, said with a smile as she bustled about her home and office near Calcutta.

In Italy, a Vatican spokesman said Pope John Paul II had accepted Mother Teresa's resignation. Deputy Vatican spokesman Monsignor Piero Pennacchini said Mother Teresa was retiring for health reasons.

In September, Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack and serious infection and surgeons implanted a permanent pacemaker on Dec. 1.

Since then, she has been unable to leave Calcutta to visit missions in other parts of the world. She seldom leaves the second floor of her home, which doubles as the order's headquarters.

Since its founding, the Missionaries of Charity has spread to 87 countries and is staffed by 3,000 nuns.

Asked who would head the organization, Mother Teresa raised her hand toward the heavens.

"We will act the way he leads us," she said.

A superior general will be elected by the order in September.

Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work caring for people much of the world wanted to forget. Lepers, cholera victims dying in their own excrement, abandoned children - all found shelter in her clinics.

by CNB