Controversies have been ignited in Albania about a bust representing the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The town of Shkoder, historically considered the centre of Albanian Catholics, intends to erect the bust in commemoration of the Blessed, founder of the Missionaries of Charity. But according to reports carried by the APIC international news agency, the plan to install the bust has been opposed by some Muslim organizations that judged it a “provocation” that would threaten “the religious peace of the region”. Local Catholics have explained this opposition as “a consequence of an agitation conducted by Islamic fundamentalists with considerable financial resources”. Mother Teresa, born at Skopje, in Macedonia, has always been esteemed by Albanians of whatever faith.
