Mother Teresa ended her 1995 U.S. tour in Mahanoy City because she wanted to visit the Missionaries of Charity convent that opened there in 1991.

The Rev. William Campion of Palmerton was pastor of two nearby parishes in the 1990s and had the privilege of being on hand for the Nobel Prize winner's visit."The church was called St. Joseph's. The excitement prior to her coming was electrifying," said Campion, who went on to serve at St. Jerome's Church in Tamaqua."There were state police there and Interpol police ... she was a Nobel Peace Prize winner," he said.Campion remembers the huge crowds that swarmed the west end of Mahanoy City."Hundreds couldn't get into the church."He recalls the service, a Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Welsh of the Diocese of Allentown.She took a seat in a front row pew, he said, the spot now marked by a brass plaque.Afterward, Mother Teresa appeared before throngs that jammed West Mahanoy Avenue in front of the large brick church."She walked out on the steps and thanked everybody. She said when she was leaving that she was headed to New York to open a care facility for unwanted babies. She said, 'If any of you has a child you don't want. I want them and will take care of them.'"Especially moving for Campion was the opportunity to meet her."I held her hand and thanked her for all she's done for the church and the world's poor. It truly was a blessing."Interestingly, Campion also was in Mother Teresa's presence a few months later at an event in Newark, New Jersey.Campion said there are still four or five sisters of the Missionaries of Charity at the Mahanoy City church and, in the beginning, it took some time for locals to become familiar with their attire, a white sari with the blue stripe."At first some people thought they were gypsies," he said.Campion will help to celebrate the Mass on Sunday, the day when Mother Teresa will be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.