“Saints”, said George Orwell in 1949, “should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.”
Mother Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is the exact reverse of this cautious warning. In her lifetime she was the recipient of numerous awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity and was listed 18 times during her life in, ‘the world’s most admired men and women’ poll.
From 1950 until her death in 1997 Mother Teresa lived in India. Her home which is affectionately known as ‘Missionaries of Charity’, was founded in a cripplingly busy neighbourhood in one of the world’s poorest cities, Kolkata. It now houses her tomb in a downstairs room.
Mother Teresa: A Cruel Nun?
Small numbers of visitors, volunteers and nuns quietly saunter through the small – but surprisingly moving – home/museum of Mother Teresa. On display are photographs, artwork, poems, quotations, articles, books as well as Mother Teresa’s personal possessions. The mood is sombre as the small congregation reflect pensively upon the life of this Saintly Mother of Kolkata. But Mother Teresa, according to the late writer Christopher Hitchens was a fraud and fundamentalist. Hitchens considers Teresa above reproach; beyond criticism and public enquiry that most senior public figures are subjected to.
Questions concerning financial misgivings, cruelty to patients in her care, and her fundamental objections to divorce and contraception seem to have evaded mass public examination. Few investigations have been conducted into these issues even though the evidence that is available reaffirms that such an enquiry is valid. For Hitchens, Teresa was void of ethics and compassion; she subscribed to a fundamental interpretation of Christianity that rendered such characteristics redundant. Said Teresa:
“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.”
A Proponent of Suffering?
Instead of being reviled and afflicted by human suffering she embraced misery, believing that when the victim was in distress he was closer to Jesus. She couldn’t or wouldn’t draw a distinction between avoidable and non-avoidable suffering and adopted a passive acceptance of both. In her own words: “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.”
A group of Canadian researchers have recently labelled Mother Teresa a “masochist”. This sentiment is evident in an anecdote told by mother Teresa of a lady enduring fierce pain from terminal cancer. Again in her own words:
“One day I met a lady who was dying of cancer in a most terrible condition and I told her, I say, you know, this terrible pain is only the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you.”
And after joining hands with the patient the patient aptly replied to Mother Teresa:
“Mother Teresa, please tell Jesus to stop kissing me.”
Did Mother Teresa Deliberately Dispense Pain?
As a consequence of her fundamental belief in Christianity as well as her uncompromising belief in the capability of Jesus, Mother Teresa’s charity was responsible in dispensing unnecessary pain and misery. Hundreds – maybe thousands – of patients died and/or suffered preventable disorders. For example, Mother Teresa’s homes for the sick and dying have been described by doctors as being deficient in basic commodities such as:
“hygiene, care, nutrition and painkillers.” (quote courtesy of alternet.org)
An American volunteer, Hemley Gonzalez was so stunned by his experiences that he established an alternative charity in Kolkata that provides adequate care to vulnerable sick and dying people. Of Mother Teresa’s charity Gonzalez said:
“Needles were washed in cold water and reused and expired medicines were given to inmates. There were people who had chance to live if given proper care, … I have decided to go back to Kolkata to start a charity that will be called Responsible Charity. Each donation will be made public and professional medical help will be given.”
Shortly after his return to the US, Gonzalez launched a Facebook page called, ‘Stop the Missionaries of Charity’.
https://www.facebook.com/missionariesofcharity
Financial Misgivings!
For years the West has been fed lies and disinformation about Mother Teresa. Medical negligence which has led to undue and unnecessary suffering and death has been surpressed. Financial misgivings – much like Mother Teresa’s patients – have been neglected.
In 1991 the German magazine ‘Stern’ revealed that of the millions of dollars donated to Mother Teresa’s charity just 7 percent was used in assisting the poor and infirm. The rest of the money was funnelled into secret bank accounts or was used to establish more missions. Yet in 2003 the Catholic Church beautified her as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Christopher Hitchens maintained that:
“her intention was not to help people.”
He also insists she lied to donors about the use of their contributions. In his own words:
“It was by talking to her that I discovered, and she assured me, that she wasn’t working to alleviate poverty. She was working to expand the number of Catholics. She said, “I’m not a social worker. I don’t do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church.”
The church (unsurprisingly) ignored this ‘alternative’ viewpoint of Hitchens. Indeed in December 2015 Pope Francis paved the way for Mother Teresa to be recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
A Conclusion on Mother Teresa …
So, righteous Saint or fraudulent fundamentalist? I’ll leave you with these concluding words from Christopher Hitchens:
“Mother Teresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure to poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. Everything everyone thinks they know about Mother Teresa is false. It must be the single most successful con job of the twentieth century.”
