10 NOT so saintly things about Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa, one of the top three female saints of all time (The other two being Joan of Arc and of course Mary herself, A.K.A. Mother of God) is a very prominent and revered individual among many people. Even among people who do not possess enough information about her probably saw one of her famous smiling pictures and think of her quiet highly, but it seems that she wasnāt the impeccable humanitarian the church had led us to believe.
1) The Curious circumstance of her Canonization
Traditionally, 5 years have to pass from the death of a person before they are nominated for sainthood. The pope broke this rule for Mother Teresa and helped her be nominated just a little more than a year after her death. This alone is eyebrow-raising and shows indeed that how much of an influential figure Teresa was for the church. Unfortunately being a highly prominent Christian pop-star alone does not grant you sainthood, some miracles have to be recorded. Monica Besri, a Bengali woman claims that she had cancerous tumor and that it was cured thanks to Mother Teresa.She has a picture of Mother Teresa at her home and states that a glowing light emanated from the picture curing her from the terrible tumor. Her doctor, Ranjan Mustafi on the other hand claims that she never had the cancerous tumor in the first place. What she had was a tubercular cyst and traditional medicine helped with that, not some wannabe saint. The Vatican of course, does not care for mere facts when it contradicts their plans. Despite the doctorās testament she was made a saint later in 2016 after another āmiracleā was accounted to her name. (In Christianity two miracles have to be recorded and be attributed to the person for them to become a saint)
2)Divorce and Contraception
In 1996, in Ireland, she demanded that a divorce and remarriage ban should be a part of the constitution. And here is the kicker. In the same year she showed her public support to Princess Diana after her divorce justifying her statement with that the marriage was an unhappy one. You can almost taste the hypocrisy. It seems that some of her rules to live by just go out the window when it concerns her rich and influential friends, but more about that later. She was also famously against contraception as we can see in on of her speeches. āIn destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so destroys the gift of love in him or her.ā
3)Views on Abortion
During her infamous Nobel prize acceptance speech, she claimed that āabortion is the greatest destroyer of peace today.āThese are not her only comments on abortion, here is more, āI always say one thing: If a mother can kill her own child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? ā Her anti-woman right rhetoric was very shameful for as a woman and a globally popular figure she could have done a lot of positive things for the emancipation of women around the world. To be fair, she was a Christian though and her anti-abortion stance should not come as a surprise to most people.
4)āCareā for the Poor and Sick
The care homes that Mother Teresaās organization built in Kolkata, India, were in quite poor condition. Tales of reused needles and blankets with feces on them were abundant. Hygiene was terrible, and obviously hygiene is crucial when dealing with people who are riddled with different infectious deadly diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis. Inhumane treatment towards disabled children who were often tied up on the bed was a common practice here. It was quite an irony that the volunteers that came from different countries were treating these people with a lot more respect and dignity than the appointed nuns. There was even an incident where the sister in charge of the Missionaries of Charityās Mahatma Gandhi Welfare Centre burned a 7-year old girl with a hot knife. Despite being short of needed medicines the white walls were filled with Mother Teresaās pictures and shrines. Makes you wonder how many peopleās last words were curses that were uttered towards the pictures of her while dying in agony and filth. She would rather pray for the suffering individual than provide the necessary care and medication.
5)Where did the money go?
The charity called Missionaries of Charity that Teresa created in 1950 was getting millions annually. It is not exactly known how much money there was because the organization didnāt disclose their information in India and other countries despite many requests from different governments. Even though there were a lot of care homes built around the globe the conditions of these places were terrible. So obviously the money wasnāt going there, where was it going then? Straight to the Vatican because Mother Teresa didnāt actually want to abolish poverty, quite on the contrary, she liked poverty because in her perverted mind poverty was equal to suffering and suffering brought you closer to god. What a benevolent lady, she seems very deserving of her nickname,the āAngel of Mercyā. (Angel of Death is more fitting)
6)Friend of Dictators and Power Hungry Politicians?
She was known to associate and accept money from very problematic individuals. Not just satisfied with the mere association she also became friends with some of these powerful tyrants in their own respective sphere, taking misappropriated money from the terrible Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan. When Licio Gelli was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature she openly and unapologetically supported him. Licio Gelli was known for being the head of the Propaganda Due masonic lodge, which was implicated in various murders and high-profile corruption cases in Italy. There are countless other controversial individuals that she praised, one for example Enver Halil Hoxha and his weird regime. Clearly she had no problem with associating herself with such individuals as long as they gave her religion enough money and support.
7)Religion First
Even though many think of the saint as someone who only and firstly thought about the poor sick and helpless people who came to the houses that her organization had built, Mother Teresaās main goal was to promote Christianity. She even said in an interview āThere is always the danger that we may become only social workersā¦ Our works are only an expression of our love for Christ.ā She was quite afraid as been as just aāsocial worker.ā No, she was not that, her primary goal was always to help Christianity, not the forsaken people of India or other countries.
8)Forced Baptisms
In his book āThe Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practiceā Christopher Hitchens claims that the workers of Mother Teresaās care homes secretly baptized countless of people on their death bed, regardless of their religion or individual wishes. A former member of the Missionaries of Charity, Susan Shields claims that sisters were to ask each person in danger of death if he wanted a āticket to heavenā. Simply stating yes or nodding your head was enough for the sisters to consider this as a wish to be baptized. Then these devious sisters would take a wet cloth and begin to baptize the individual while pretending as if they were cooling the personās head. They would also say all the necessary words while doing this, of course the words had to be said quietly, so the patient wouldnāt understand what was really going on. The worst thing about this is that Hindus and Muslims (and maybe there were atheists among them)were converted to Christianity before their death without providing proper consent to the situation. It is a very dubious and immoral deed to disrespect someoneās religion and wishes like this.
9)Crisis of Faith?
Now this is surely a surprise and kind of a paradox for most of us. The woman saint who the whole world sees as a beacon of light for Christians had problems with her faith? Even though this seems unbelievable it is absolutely true, there are myriad of letters of her admitting this. This is what she wrote to reverend Michael Van Der Peet in 1979 āJesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me-The silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see,Listen and do not hear.ā In her letters she goes as far to compare her situation to being in hell and even places doubts on religion and God himself. āThe smile,ā she writes, is āa maskā or āa cloak that covers everything.ā There is so much more that she writes but I will leave you with this āThen I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven ā there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul.ā Of course no one claims that Mother Teresa was an avid atheist but I find her lack of faith disturbing.
10) The Hypocrisy
There seems to be so much hypocrisy inside this one āthieving Albanian dwarfā as Cristopher Hitchens once called her. She admired poverty and even went as far as to envy the poor in that they are closer to god. Despite this when it came for herself, she didnāt prefer one of her care homes but the best Californian clinics when she was sick. We can also see the hypocrisy in her telling people to believe in Christ and God but herself not feeling anything in her heart. This all is revealed in her personal letters that she demanded the destruction of after her death but the church didnāt allow it. The only positive thing about her hypocrisy is that she acknowledged it āI spoke as if my very heart was in love with God ā tender, personal love,ā she remarks to an adviser. āIf you were [there], you would have said, āWhat hypocrisy.ā
Now it may seem as this article is unnecessary cruel and negative but it should be noted that the only reason why I scrutinize her so much, is that this woman is being presented to both religious and non-religious people around the globe as one of the most kind and compassionate human beings that has ever lived on this world (and is literally a saint) while the truth is far from it.
She is no devil, but she is clearly no saintā¦
