Accusations against Saint Teresa?

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Willing_Spirit

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I recently saw on social media an absurdly large number of people speaking slander against Saint Teresa and her work. At first I dismissed it all as anti-Catholic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, but a google search turns up a suprising number of sources (not sure how reliable) apparently validating the criticism.

This article covers most of the slander: Wuellenweber: “Mother Teresa: Where are her millions” – Life is a Random Draw

I had no idea so many people believed Saint Teresa was “evil”. Obviously, any famous figure will face slander, especially a devout Catholic, but where do such specific accusations come from if they are untrue? Why are they so widely believed? Is there any refuting of the criticism?
 
Those who do God’s work will always be condemned and hated. Jesus promised it.
 
Of course, but people aren’t condemning her for good things like speaking against abortion. People are calling her a fraud, and painting her charity as a con. I’m just wondering if there is anything to say in defense to people that believe such slander. There are some things I can see that I would say must have been taken out of context, but is there a defense to claims that millions in donations are unaccounted for? Where does this misinformation come from? Why do people think that Saint Teresa refused available pain medications to people?
 
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Again, look to what Jesus said: Matthew 5

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.g12* Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.h Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
 
You are aware that Western Civilization is pretty much a dead horse?

Lies and misinformation are pretty much the hallmarks of it.

Mother Teresa was pretty well liked and admired until she started speaking out against abortion.
Then the haters started crawling out of the woodwork.

No surprises here.
 
A lot of the hate in the West is just a reflection of the hatred directed towards her in India, plus the usual anti-Christian bigotry. Anti-Christian bigots just use the Indian complaints as ammo.
 
Many people have criticized her for not being a socialist. Among many people, private acts of charity are actually evil, because they distract from what they feel to be the importance of setting up socialist economic policies. That is one main criticism of Mother Teresa’s work… If she really wanted to help people, she would be fighting for a socialist economic world order. There may be other reasons people have for criticizing Mother Teresa, but I know that many who despise her and think her a fraud because she was not a socialist crusader.
 
The accusations against St Mother Teresa are unfounded and misleading

First off keep in mind that Mother Teresa, did NOT run a hospital nor a medical clinic

The people she took in off the street, were left in the street to die. She took them in, cleaned them up, fed them and gave them dignity and respect as they died.

She was not a doctor nor medical professional, She could not give them medications and in most cases, her hospice didn’t have medications to give anyway.

The clinic that eventually came about in Calcutta, happened in the final years of Mother Teresa’s life and it was run by a Jewish doctor. Even then, he could only treat those who would benefit according to the medical supplies he had on hand,

Lastly, Mother Teresa suffered from an extreme Dark Night of the Soul, which lay people would never understand.
 
Willing_Spirit said:
Yeah that’s very comforting, but it doesn’t help stop the spread of misinformation and guide people to the truth.
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If stupid people choose to believe stupid things about her that’s their problem. They will have to answer to God.
We don’t have to refute any baseless assertion.
 
Perhaps, but I feel for those not actually making the baseless accusations, but rather gullibly believing and being lead astray by them, could at least be enlightened why those accusations are actually baseless. I don’t want to dismiss people and leave them in the dark if I can find an explanation for the misunderstanding.
 
There is not one famous person who has ever lived or will ever live, no matter how virtuous, who has not been hated and smeared by people. Evil forces along with human pettiness, envy, resentment, ideologies, and hatreds will smear, destroy, and crucificy even the most self-sacrificing and the most holy persons.
 
So is the claim that she had pain medication, but refused it to people because she wanted them to embrace suffering completely made up then or was something twisted? I’m afraid there is not much light to shine if there are no kernels of truth to these lies that can be set straight.

Why do people think millions of dollars are unaccounted for? Is that made up? Or are people mistaken about how much was donated for what purposes? Is there any truth to the denying of dedicated charity to Ethiopia mentioned in the article?

If everything is made up then I guess there is no conversation to have with these people. I just hoped there were misunderstandings to clarify or alternate stories to tell.
 
So is the claim that she had pain medication, but refused it to people because she wanted them to embrace suffering completely made up then or was something twisted?
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She did tell them to offer it up, but because she didn’t have the medication nor the ability to administer it if she had.

She could not give injections nor IV’s, which the pain meds many required.

The money is spread out all over the world where her hospices are located.

She even has one in NYC.

The order controls the money and they take vows of poverty so none are living in luxury
 
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A lot of modern people criticize the fact that St. Teresa’s facilities weren’t up to modern medical standards, but they’re forgetting that for the people she was treating the only alternative was often to go untreated. She had a choice of going for quality (giving the highest standard of treatment possible) or quantity (giving basic treatments to as many people as possible) and chose the latter. I think given her circumstances it was a valid choice.

A second big criticism of her is that she accepted donations from some very bad people. To that I’ll point out that the religion she adhered to was one which taught that even the worst humans could be saved - if she prevented an evil person from doing good she might risk standing in the way of that person’s atonement.

Those are the only two criticisms that I think have even some validity. People also criticize her for speaking against abortion and contraception, but that’s just her following standard Catholic doctrine.
 
See, I think some of those things are a matter of perspective. Her association with dictators could be likened to Jesus dining with sinners. Also, infants are Baptized without consent, so I don’t see the harm in how she Baptized people, since it washes away sin. Consent isn’t needed, just like being born in a country grants citizenship. I also read that she had no intentions of running hospitals, but was simply caring for those dying in the streets that nobody else cared for, giving them hope in their final moments. Even the accusations that she “demanded free food” from people doesn’t mean anything to me other than that she was human.

What I don’t know enough about to see another perspective in is the use of donations. I don’t know if it is a valid accusation, but people think a lot of money that was meant to be used to help the poor was instead just hoarded away, and that everyone suffered more than they needed to.
 
Neither you nor I know for sure what did she do, but be kind and meek and believe whatever she did was out of Love for God.
 
Most of the criticism I am aware of stems from her attitude and views on unnecessary suffering. Typically, Catholics believe there is virtue in this. The rest of us, not so much.
 
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