Mother Teresa

[dafalax]

Okay, kiddies, i’ve never posted a thread before, so here goes. I desperately need help because i have a friend who recently told me that Mother Teresa was really evil and used India’s poor to get international recognition in hopes of one day being made a saint. I looked up some websites backing up her claim, and apparently there’s a book out called The Missionary Position written by this guy who claims Mother Teresa spoke of the Duvalier’s good work for the poor of Haiti and that she received money from Charles Keating and didn’t permit painkillers to be administered in one of her hospitals, etc. etc. As you can see there are alot of claims here and i don’t even know where to begin with answering them. One of my friend’s assertions with regards to Blessed Teresa was that she told the poor that they deserved their hardship and denied them treatment, just converted them on their deathbeds. I told her that someone probably misconstrued the Catholic principle of redemptive suffering to make her look sadistic. Other than that, i’m at a loss. Can someone please enlighten me?

 

[JCPhoenix]

Unfortunately I can’t answer to most of those very wild and WRONG charges. My guess is that if this book exists, then it was written by Jack Chick and his like.

Regarding the deathbead conversions…well, they may have happened, but I know for a fact, as it is well documented, that Mothere Theresa respected the beliefs of those to whom she ministered. If they were Hindu, she buried them according to Hindu custom when they died.

As far as not allowing painkillers or medications? That’s ridiculous. The fact that people loved her completely blows that out of the water. People don’t gravitate toward sadists.

Dumb, dumb claims.

 

[Strider]

The Book The Missionary Position was written by well-known British athiest Christopher Hitchins. He and a few other athiests have decided Blessed Teresa is an easy target,. being dead and all. The claims you mention, and more, are indeed made in the book.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has debated Hitchins on this topic several times. He claims Hitchins has no documentation to support his slander. You might contact the Catholic League.
Also, I’m sure Fr. Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal would have a thing or two to say about this. He was a good friend and great admirer of Mother Teresa, but he’s probably harder to cantact.
I just consider the source and figure the less publicity about this the better. It’ll go away sooner.

 

[Cockney_Clive]

You mean to say that Teresa’s entire game plan, from ever since she was a little girl, was to become a Saint? And to do this she removed herself from her own country, thousands and thousands of mile away, deprived herself of all comfort and all rest, lived in abject poverty, shoulder-toshoulder with all sorts of disgusting vermin and disease. So that, after her death she could become a Saint? Wow! Why didn’t I think of that!!!

Just goes to show that the Christopher Hitchens of this world just don’t have a clue. You just cannot use the yardstick of the world to measure the love of someone like Teresa.

 

[severinus]

Hitchens’s argument does not hold water. Harming people seems a useless way to seek sainthood. Mother Teresa has been accused of NOT converting people, just attending to their physical needs.

Hitchens rarely has a good thing to say about anybody; he is especially fond of attacking the dead. He seems bitter whenever I have seen him in an interview.

 

[antiaphrodite]

severinus:

Hitchens rarely has a good thing to say about anybody; he is especially fond of attacking the dead.

:bigyikes:

 

[Maccabees]

If you read the Talmud you will find that the Jews still pulled no punches attacking the Nazarene as the son of Beezlebub, a magacian, a sorcerer a complete con artist. Well if they could attack Jesus after hid death and ressurection why would Mother Teressa be any different? Heck after the John Paul 2 you had liberals attacking him becuased he didn’t support their pet agenda.
Just because your holy doesn’t mean you wont; have your critics and calumny thrown at you. Jesus said if they persecute me then they will persecute you.

 

[radhika]

I personally know the Sisters of Missioneries over here in India. In fact i spent the whole of this morning at their home for destitutes with the sisters. There are men here who look so ugly,not because they are ugly-but because they are so sick. who are crawling with maggots which these sisters pull out with their bare hands. they bathe these men, who leak with diarriah,they soil the sisters white sari’s, they go all over the floor, and the sisters smile as they clean up behind them. Why are these sisters doing the things they do? why on earth would they if their founder was an evil women? The sisters here have a makeshift home, they sleep in temporary structures with no luxaries whatsoever. They do it because their founder told them to do it for love of Jesus Christ. To call Mother Teresa evil, is beyond comprehension. Something is seriously wrong with this writer. he should be prayed for.

 

[dafalax]

Thank you everyone for responding with your support and information. It appears that there’s a trend for people to become famous by taking a long-assumed fact and writing a book saying exactly the opposite, i.e. Jesus wasn’t really divine, Mother Teresa was really evil, etc. It’s awful, but people want attention. It’s pride that makes these ugly lies so easy to buy into. “You don’t really believe Mother Teresa was good do you? I, smug enlightened person, have secret information to the contrary (tres gnostic). You don’t want to be like the foolish masses do you?” And then you believe this new point of view without question because you don’t want to be seen as a pathetic fanatic who ignores reason to perpetuate the lie that is your outdated faith. But if we lovingly and intelligently expose these manipulative tactics and falsehoods with facts, we can draw people back to the truth. Thanks for making it easy.

 

[cheddarsox]

Cockney Clive:

You mean to say that Teresa’s entire game plan, from ever since she was a little girl, was to become a Saint? And to do this she removed herself from her own country, thousands and thousands of mile away, deprived herself of all comfort and all rest, lived in abject poverty, shoulder-toshoulder with all sorts of disgusting vermin and disease. So that, after her death she could become a Saint? Wow! Why didn’t I think of that!!!

Just goes to show that the Christopher Hitchens of this world just don’t have a clue. You just cannot use the yardstick of the world to measure the love of someone like Teresa.

Isn’t it the game plan for all Catholics to become Saints? Or do you mean Saint, as opposed to mere saint? I had thought that is why Catholics live and believe as they do, that they mights attain heaven when they die?

cheddar

 

[StCsDavid]

dafalax:

Okay, kiddies, i’ve never posted a thread before, so here goes. I desperately need help because i have a friend who recently told me that Mother Teresa was really evil and used India’s poor to get international recognition in hopes of one day being made a saint.

I suspect there is a larger truth your friend is trying to deny and she is lashing out at one of the more recent beautiful examples of that truth. Pray for her conversion.

 

[Zooey]

radhika:

I personally know the Sisters of Missioneries over here in India. In fact i spent the whole of this morning at their home for destitutes with the sisters. There are men here who look so ugly,not because they are ugly-but because they are so sick. who are crawling with maggots which these sisters pull out with their bare hands. they bathe these men, who leak with diarriah,they soil the sisters white sari’s, they go all over the floor, and the sisters smile as they clean up behind them. Why are these sisters doing the things they do? why on earth would they if their founder was an evil women? The sisters here have a makeshift home, they sleep in temporary structures with no luxaries whatsoever. They do it because their founder told them to do it for love of Jesus Christ. To call Mother Teresa evil, is beyond comprehension. Something is seriously wrong with this writer. he should be prayed for.

God bless you for this response!! To receive a response that comes from someone who has seen first hand, is one of the blesings of this age of the internet.
I, for one, knew in my heart that what you say is true. But it is truly wonderful to have a person who has seen these things, to testify in the face of an attack by the author of this book!!
Again, God bless you.

 

[severinus]

cheddarsox:

Isn’t it the game plan for all Catholics to become Saints? Or do you mean Saint, as opposed to mere saint? I had thought that is why Catholics live and believe as they do, that they mights attain heaven when they die?

cheddar

Yes, but sainthood or even canonization is possible without leaving your hometown. If all Mother Teresa wanted was to be a saint (or Saint), she could have done it in good old Skopje, without all the hardships and without going to India.

 

[FCEGM]

Yes, but sainthood or even canonization is possible without leaving your hometown. If all Mother Teresa wanted was to be a saint (or Saint), she could have done it in good old Skopje, without all the hardships and without going to India.

Right; and given the vicious atheism of the Albanian Communists in control of her homeland for many years, she could have quickly become a martyr-Saint.

I think one of the things that irks the likes of poor Christopher Hitchins is the sheer goodness of heart of the likes of Mother Teresa who can see beauty in both the capitalist and the beggar.

 

[severinus]

[/quote]

Without debating the merits of Bob Hope’s comedy, here is Hitchens going after Hope a week following the latter’s death:
slate.msn.com/id/2086499/

His comments on Princess Diana just after her death are widely available on the web.

Hitchens is a smart guy, but snarky, arrogant, and insulting. There’s something very small about a man who takes such relish in kicking people after they are dead.

 

[severinus]

FCEGM:

Right; and given the vicious atheism of the Albanian Communists in control of her homeland for many years, she could have quickly become a martyr-Saint.

I think one of the things that irks the likes of poor Christopher Hitchins is the sheer goodness of heart of the likes of Mother Teresa who can see beauty in both the capitalist and the beggar.

“Right” back at you, FCEGM. Hitchens criticizes Mother Teresa for taking money from what he considers unsavory people; I guess sinners should not try to anything good. We are so lucky to have such a shining beacon of purity as Hitchens providing moral guidance to us wretches.