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@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)