[WikiEN-l] Re: [Wikipedia-l] Saints

Fri Oct 24 13:51:23 UTC 2003

The reason the [[Mother Theresa]] article starts off '''Mother
Theresa''' and not "Blessed Mother Theresa" can be explained in two
words:

 * Uncle Ed *

(Those are the two words :-)

As Vicki explained before, our primary rule-of-thumb is that we call a
person the way most people call them. So the article on X at QJKjqjz (or
whatever her birth name was) uses her adopted name of Theresa because
not one reader in 50 would recognize her Albanian (or whatever) name. It
also adds the title "Mother" because she's been famous as a convent
leader for the past 2 decades.

Her recent title, from her beatification this month, makes her the
"Blessed" Mother Theresa (for Catholics and others who believe in
beatification by a sitting pope). I placed her title, if I recall
correctly, at the end of the paragraph with (I hope) a short note
explaining that (a) it's a recent title upgrade and (b) hardly anyone
but Catholics 'recognizes' the title.

I'm not -- and James and Vicki are not -- suggesting that Wikipedia take
a POSITION on whether the title is justified. It's just the handiest way
to refer to her.

*sigh* about twice a year, there's a big re-examination of our style
sheet. I hope this isn't that time...

Ed Poor (aka Uncle Ed)