Mother Theresa

[enickman]

Mother Theresa is heavily criticized by atheists. What exactly do they criticize about her and why? What is the defense for her holiness?

 

[R_C]

They hate her because they hated Him first.

I haven’t met atheist groups working side by side with the Missionaries of Charity yet…

 

[sennincatholic]

Mother Theresa is heavily criticized by atheists. What exactly do they criticize about her and why? What is the defense for her holiness?

Lol. You wont expect a group of people who dont believe God exists to be friendly friendly with someone whose entire life was centred around God right?Anyway, i also read alot of criticisms about her which were quite disturbing like she was a fraud and that the first miracle performed after her dead through her intercession was fake and many other stuff.
Whats important is to focus on the legacy she left for us christians and not to get worried about what people who didnt even know her say about her.

 

[Ophelia23]

There was an article on Huffington Post a few weeks ago criticizing how Mother Theresa handled the donations she received. The article was written with a very negative tone, and complained that she should have spent more of it on this or that. It seemed so silly to me. She did more than anybody else in our lifetime, but someone will always find a bone to pick.

 

[jpjd]

Why was she criticized? Because she was unabashedly Catholic and a champion of the destitute. According to Wiki:

1. “Mother Teresa has been criticized for having few scruples about where donations came from” because she accepted a sizable donation from people like Charles Keating of the savings and loan scandal. However, “Mother Teresa’s view was that if someone offers charity for the poor it should be accepted for their sake regardless of the merits or otherwise of the giver.”
2. “Her hardline views on abortion and contraception…put her at great odds with the feminist movement. She was criticized by liberals who disliked her conservative stance…”
3. “Christopher Hitchens said Mother Teresa is widely and falsely seen as selflessly devoted to serving mankind and that people fail to examine claims about Mother Teresa because she is considered holy…There was in Hitchens’ opinion no reason to pay so much attention to Mother Teresa rather than to many other people working to relieve misery.” Sour grapes from Htichens, IMO. He should be praising the woman who relieves this misery rather than complaining that a holy woman gets so much attention.
4. Her “Home for Dying Destitutes” was criticized for its quality of medical care. A leading palliative care expert responded, “Recently, criticism has been leveled at Mother Theresa for not attaining the standards of care in Calcutta that might be expected in a UK hospice. Such criticism is destructive and fails to appreciate the difficulties and frustrations faced by individuals striving to provide some basic compassionate care with little or no resources”
5. They baptize the dying. Mother Theresa herself responded to this: “Something very beautiful… not one has died without receiving the special ticket for St. Peter, as we call it. We call baptism ticket for St. Peter. We ask the person, do you want a blessing by which your sins will be forgiven and you receive God? They have never refused. So 29,000 have died in that one house [in Kalighat] from the time we began in 1952.”

OP, as to your question “What is the defense for her holiness”:
The defense speaks for itself. Mother Theresa spent her life working among and for people so destitute that the poor in the U.S. look wealthy by comparison. She did hands-on care with the scorned and forgotten sick and dying. People could see that she was the hands and feet of Christ. That is the defense for her holiness.

 

[TimothyH]

Because she was unabashedly Catholic and a champion of the destitute. According to Wiki:

I don’t think it is a proper characterization of Mother Theresa to say that she was “Unabashedly Catholic.”

She certainly did not wear her Catholicism on her shirt sleeve and prayed with people of many different faiths including Muslims and Hindus. She certainly can’t be characterized as a Catholic Apologist, that’s for sure.

As other’s have pointed out, Mother Theresa is hated because Christ and his Church are hated.

-Tim-

 

[peace777]

Most of us knew that Mother Theresa was a nice caring lady and is already a saint in gods eyes.

 

[sennincatholic]

They hate her because they hated Him first.

I haven’t met atheist groups working side by side with the Missionaries of Charity yet…

You are right! They hate her because they hated Jesus first.

 

[Evan]

You might want to read this analysis: firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics

 

[Jaysuitical]

We don’t know everyone’s motives for criticizing Mother Teresa, except when they directly inform us why. Christopher Hitchens made clear his motivations, and we can definitely say he was motivated by malice, because so many of his writings on all subjects were prompted by malice and a real contempt for other people.

Much, though not all, the criticism comes very much from an anglo-american or anglo point of view, and anglo culture is deeply hostile to poverty as such, especially when it comes to people who really do embrace it & live according to it.

 

[adawgj]

There are two missionaries that I really like Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer.
Why criticize ones work to help humanity.
Mother Teresa is one of poverty and her reason to be poor was to help the poor you gotta be poor.
Those who criticize her are criticizing ones life work for the poor and humanity.