A Group against Mother Teresa postage stamp

TIRANA, Jan. 25 – Mother Teresa is becoming a religious saint, a position she already holds in the hearts of many Albanians and Indians.
Everybody had heard warm words to honor this great woman. But their words were not the only ones heard.
An anti-religion group is urging its members to write complaint letters to the U.S. Postal Service over the upcoming issuance of a stamp to honor the late Mother Teresa.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation asserts that Mother Teresa, a nun who won the Nobel Peace Prize and international acclaim for her decades of relief work among the impoverished of Calcutta, India, should not be honored because she is a religious figure.
Mother Teresa was born in Albania and spent most of her life in India but was given honorary U.S. citizenship in 1996, a year before she died.
In the last year, the FFRF has sent numerous letters to local governments in California and elsewhere threatening to sue over public invocations. Last October, the FFRF filed suit challenging federal and state tax laws that provide tax exemptions for ministers’ housing allowances.
Albanians
Albania expressed its interest last year that the remains of the Nobel Peace laureate be returned to the country by the 100th anniversary of her birth in August.
The words sparked strong reactions in India claiming that Mother Teresa was theirs despite her national identity.
FYROM and Albania have been engaged in a dispute over the national identity of Mother Teresa too, who was born in FYROM to an ethnic Albanian family. She went to Calcutta, India, in 1929, and dedicated herself to the service of the poor and infirm, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
After her death in 1997, she was buried in Calcutta and Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003. Albania’s main airport outside the capital, Tirana, is named after Mother Teresa.