Mother Theresa article

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I’ve heard of this before, and apparently so have those who conducted the research because according to the article:*Some of their references included medical journals and British journalist Christopher Hitchens, who called Mother Teresa a “fraud.”*Hitchens was an anti-Mother Teresa propagandist of sorts as far as I can tell. My thought is also to brush this off. Even if you read that article, there’s no substance in it. Where is the evidence? This scientist said the Vatican did a PR cover up? Based on what? Try asking some of the people she and her ministries took in off the street. Nonsense shouldn’t be given much credence.
 
Anything from HuffPo is automatically virulently anti-Catholic. Don’t even read their stuff. Why wade in the garbage?

Mother Teresa has been beatified by the True Church. She was a personal friend of Pope John Paul II. Her writings and speeches make it clear sort of person she was… As if her works do not speak for themselves.

What more do you need to know? Why doubt?

I have a close friend who is in Mother Teresa’s order and knew her, lived with her for a time, and lives a very strict life of dedication to God and the poor, which she learned at the feet of Mother Teresa.

Satan’s greatest tool in our current society is the news media. I have read all this “stuff” for years. Please do not degrade our Faith or a Saintly woman by indulging decadent, anti-Christian so-called journalists.

Hitchens and his hate-mongering ilk could not go to the filthy streets of Calcutta and face up to Mother Teresa’s life for ONE SINGLE DAY.
 
enbell said:
Canadian journalists seek to disprove her good works. My first thought is to brush this off. Has anyone read this yet? Or heard of this before?
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What Hitchens, healthcare professionals, and even some of the volunteers who served with her took issue with is ultimately that the facility in Calcutta was allowed to stray from its intended purpose as a house of the dying. It became a house packed with hordes of people with entirely treatable illnesses who went there expecting proper medical care and miracle cures but died because no one there was qualified to provide it, the facility was never equipped for that purpose, and there were no referrals to or sponsorships for healthcare facilities.
No one has questioned Mother Theresa’s good intentions, including Hitchens, but many people have questioned, over the years, why she was so fixated on what she wanted this facility to be that she never properly addressed what it actually was nor direct people seeking real medical care to a medical facility or provide those services in her mission. The people of Calcutta thought the mission would provide medical care and they were allowed to enter it and remain there with that mistaken impression; leading to a lot of unnecessary suffering and death. That is what Hitchens meant when he called her a “fraud.” She was a great person, and she deserves to be honored for what she did, but people wonder whether she missed her true calling in India.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
What Hitchens, healthcare professionals, and even some of the volunteers who served with her took issue with is ultimately that the facility in Calcutta was allowed to stray from its intended purpose as a house of the dying. It became a house packed with hordes of people with entirely treatable illnesses who went there expecting proper medical care and miracle cures but died because no one there was qualified to provide it, the facility was never equipped for that purpose, and there were no referrals to or sponsorships for healthcare facilities.
No one has questioned Mother Theresa’s good intentions, including Hitchens, but many people have questioned, over the years, why she was so fixated on what she wanted this facility to be that she never properly addressed what it actually was nor direct people seeking real medical care to a medical facility or provide those services in her mission. The people of Calcutta thought the mission would provide medical care and they were allowed to enter it and remain there with that mistaken impression; leading to a lot of unnecessary suffering and death. That is what Hitchens meant when he called her a “fraud.” She was a great person, and she deserves to be honored for what she did, but people wonder whether she missed her true calling in India.
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This is exactly what I have heard. Medical doctors became frustrated by the lack of will to use some of the huge sums of money donated by those inspired by Mother Theresa’s hard work and humble dedication to the dying, to develop the medical care in the homes. She wanted to give them love as they died and also to save souls. Non religious people forget the importance and passion of a religious person like her to save souls as a priority. Unfortunately, as you say, many people who were dying only for the sake of lack of surgery or medicine, got caught up in this place…where they received love and the last rights but were not referred to doctors or have trained nurses look after them - not even for proper pain relief - just using aspirin etc. So that people died in unnecessary pain sometimes. Mother Theresa gave all the money to her superiors…why wasn’t it channelled to develop the health care of her homes, so that they could serve the living as well as the dying? She wasn’t educated in health care, she was a simple good woman with a big heart…but she was human and the criticisms of the homes are valid.
 
Yet more revisionism. It seems that this is a combination of the trend to invert accepted accounts of history just for the sake of it (or its very lucrative attention) and the so-called academic (but more journalstic) movement to prove as evil/untrue all things religious (by which they almost always mean Christian-esp Catholic).

The two Canadian authors seemed to have conducted their “gathered” from ahem literature.

That suggests picking through secondary other sources rather than leaving their rather comfortable university.

The Huff Post is bringing us nothing new on this issue as their has been numerous similar criticisms going back about twenty years now.

I suspect that these two rather obscure “researchers” were only too happy for the attention (tenure and all that) while the Huff Post was filling pages with “catholic stuff” while the Church is once again in the baleful gaze of the media.
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
The people of Calcutta thought the mission would provide medical care and they were allowed to enter it and remain there with that mistaken impression
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Who are some of the people who went to her facility expecting healthcare that didn’t get it? What kind of care were they expecting?
 
Sigh… sadly the reports against her are true and the least of them all is that one.

If you look up Hitchens book on Amaon, and the reviews you will see the comments by the Canadian dr who visited a facility and saw the deprivation babies were enduring there, no diapers, three to a cot etc. She went home, collected a large sum and sent it to that orphanage… they revisited to find conditions even worse and a baby died of starvation when they were there. The srs there had never seen a cent of th e money.

If you take responsibility for a human life, especially a baby, and you have money then you feed that baby as much as it needs, You care for it as you care for Jesus - period.

You do not let any human being die hungry ot in pain when you have the means to care for them and she had millions. And of course the best of medical care herself

Love means caring, and she had the means to care for folk OR give the money to those who would care for them,

She gave out of date vaccines to children … the list is endless.

When I first read the truth, I contacted aid worker friends as like many here I could not credit it. Same story; filth, lack of care, lack of food and the order has millions

It made me weep for the loss of life and loss of any real caring; Jesus always cared for the bodies of others .

The most reliable reports come from within the order.

srai.org/mother-teresa-where-are-her-millions/

and see other articles google “mother teresa’s millions”

If you want to live poor yoruself that is fine; but please, you have no right to inflict that kind of “holy poverty” on defenceless babies and sick folk and call it love.

Look at our hospices where folk are loved AND cared for physically. One does not exclude the other

I worriess me some that folk cannot seem to see when wrong has been done; and that idols are made of human beings

And of course, she has not been made saint and too much is known now fot that to happen.

All of this shocked me rigid at the time as I was deeply involved with the order in many ways.e BUT it made me look to Jesus and not to humankind. so I thank her for making me closer ro Jesus and more careful where I put my trust
 
I saw a documentary some time ago, about Mother Theresa and her homes. It included some interviews with her as well as with some critics of the homes. It seemed to me a very fair, non- sensationalist documentary, without the rantings and huffing and puffing from Mr Hitchens…
Mother Theresa came over as a dedicated woman alright…she and her helpers gave their lives to the poor in India whom they saw dying on the streets. Her dedication drew in lots of money from people who trusted her to put it to good use. She, in turn, gave it to her superiors in the church (can’t remember who, exactly) …the criticism was: where did it all go? There was enough money donated to equip homes with medicine/medical facilities and to employ doctors and/or train nurses. However, the homes seemed very badly equipped, patients with curable conditions (not recognised by the untrained helpers) were not referred to hospitals and were dying unnecessarily. There were volunteer helpers from all over the world and it was some of these - frustrated by the lack of medical care, who were some of the critics of the homes. They saw the good in Mother Theresa’s mission but they also saw an almost singleminded focus on helping people to die with a saved soul, rather than trying to save lives, even of young people. Also, the pain control of the dying was haphazard and inadequate which was seen as really unacceptable as there should have been plenty of money to buy the drugs and train people to use them. Mother Theresa herself kept saying,’ but we are not doctors, we are not trained’ when the lack of medical provision was brought up with her…and she was right., but she really didn’t seem to see any need to do anything about this. So why was help and training not given to her and her helpers when the mission attracted so much money? Perhaps through the formidable force of her own character…perhaps she didn’t want any such interference (that’s purely a guess).
The real question is: Why wasn’t the money collected used to equip the homes and train the helpers better?
 
Walcot said:
The real question is: Why wasn’t the money collected used to equip the homes and train the helpers better?
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Need better sources for the financial fraud. I can’t seem to find much online other than polemics by Hitchens repeated - the same Hitchens who argued that because Stalin’s image appeared on an Orthodox icon of another saint, that the Orthodox therefore venerated Stalin as a saint.
 
MarcoPolo said:
Need better sources for the financial fraud. I can’t seem to find much online other than polemics by Hitchens repeated - the same Hitchens who argued that because Stalin’s image appeared on an Orthodox icon of another saint, that the Orthodox therefore venerated Stalin as a saint.
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I think we can leave Mr Hitchens out of this…there seems to be enough concern voiced by other, less controversial characters.
The documentary I saw followed the sisters and volunteers working in the homes…the rooms looked dirty (certainly totally unacceptable by hospital standards, even in developing countries), people were lying on pallets on the floor. THEY DIDN’T HIDE THE FACT that there was no medication other than the very basic(aspirin etc). They didn’t hide the fact that they didn’t assess people to see what was wrong with them, their death (not life) in Jesus seemed to be their only concern.
Then just WHERE did all the money go? It seems that the mission attracted an awful lot of money and the homes could therefore have been well equipped and staffed. Even as a hospice, rather than a hospital, medical care could and should have been there. There is (or has been) a lot of secrecy in the Catholic church so it’s bound to attract suspicion here, but did the money go to Mother Theresa’s order or elsewhere? Inside or outside the church? Did someone/thing else make use of her?
In the documentary she just laughed the question off and said the money wasn’t her concern, she just handed it on (but I don’t think she said exactly where).
 
MarcoPolo said:
Who are some of the people who went to her facility expecting healthcare that didn’t get it? What kind of care were they expecting?
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The ones that couldn’t get treatment from India’s universal health care system.
 
“The Vatican said the Catholic Church is ‘committed to universal healthcare coverage.’ Archbishop Zygmunt Zimoski told the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 24 that the Vatican supports Resolution WHA64.9, a measure that would urge countries to “plan the transition of their health systems to universal coverage.”
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“My delegation strongly believes that … fundamental values such as equity, human rights and social justice need to become explicit policy objectives,” he said.
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Without abortion, obviously.👍
 
MarcoPolo said:
Who are some of the people who went to her facility expecting healthcare that didn’t get it? What kind of care were they expecting?
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It was a female Dr from England and she made a comment some time back about conditions which was picked up by the media about a lack of pain medications and supplies. She never had anything negative to say about Mother Theresa or the Sisters.

This in return was picked up by many and twisted. Some time ago we discussed this here, I can’t remember the Doctors name.
 
Walcot said:
I think we can leave Mr Hitchens out of this…there seems to be enough concern voiced by other, less controversial characters.
The documentary I saw followed the sisters and volunteers working in the homes…the rooms looked dirty (certainly totally unacceptable by hospital standards, even in developing countries), people were lying on pallets on the floor. THEY DIDN’T HIDE THE FACT that there was no medication other than the very basic(aspirin etc). They didn’t hide the fact that they didn’t assess people to see what was wrong with them, their death (not life) in Jesus seemed to be their only concern.
Then just WHERE did all the money go? It seems that the mission attracted an awful lot of money and the homes could therefore have been well equipped and staffed. Even as a hospice, rather than a hospital, medical care could and should have been there. There is (or has been) a lot of secrecy in the Catholic church so it’s bound to attract suspicion here, but did the money go to Mother Theresa’s order or elsewhere? Inside or outside the church? Did someone/thing else make use of her?
In the documentary she just laughed the question off and said the money wasn’t her concern, she just handed it on (but I don’t think she said exactly where).
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Let’s say for a moment all this is true. Hospitals could have been cleaner, health services were minimal. So based on that, it’s supposed to be a “myth” that Mother Teresa loved the neglected off the street because she merely fed them and provided a little medical care which was not enough for those she took in whom were severely ill? That’s what I’m gathering is the line of logic.

As to the money, I am still on clear on what money is missing. You refer to a documentary you saw one time, but I can’t comment further without some data.
 
GaryTaylor said:
It was a female Dr from England and she made a comment some time back about conditions which was picked up by the media about a lack of pain medications and supplies. She never had anything negative to say about Mother Theresa or the Sisters.

This in return was picked up by many and twisted. Some time ago we discussed this here, I can’t remember the Doctors name.
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If you think of her name, please share.
 
GaryTaylor said:
It was a female Dr from England and she made a comment some time back about conditions which was picked up by the media about a lack of pain medications and supplies. She never had anything negative to say about Mother Theresa or the Sisters.

This in return was picked up by many and twisted. Some time ago we discussed this here, I can’t remember the Doctors name.
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I think the doctor just kept her thoughts to herself. As health care practitioners, we are taught that pain relief is a basic human right. Mother Theresa could have loved the dying just as I care for the sick but once I neglect my duty to my patients it’s going to be malpractice. Why do people brush it off that she didn’t upgrade her facilities to meet some sort of standard? Even if the people who sought her just wanted to be comforted, why not in a nice warm bed or in a comfortable environment?

Shouldn’t we admit that there is neglect on her part? What do guys you think?
 
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