Skepticism about Mother Teresa?

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Hi. I was debating with an atheist earlier, who was shooting claim after claim after question after question at me about the Catholic Faith/Church and religion in general. One thing that they claimed is that Mother Teresa is just another proof of the Church’s falsity, because she is not really the great saint she is made about to be. He claimed that there is no proof that she did anything miraculous, and, in fact, that she was just a money-collector for the Church. I looked this up for myself and turns out he is not the only one. There is a lot of skepticism of Mother Teresa out there. Just the first result that comes up, summarily put together in a Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Mother_Teresa
Also,
huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html

He says anything defending her is Catholic sourced, so it’s not “proof” of her goodness.
Can anyone offer me some advice on how to deal with this argument?
 
stay from Atheists when it comes to talking about Blessed Teresa of Calcutta…

I wonder how many of them would be willing to do what she did…care for the poorest of the poor…the cripple, the abandoned child, the woman with leprosy. She knew she was called to do this work. She wanted to go to Calcutta and help the poor. She even said she would take the baby, if it would save that child from abortion.
 
Ambition said:
Hi. I was debating with an atheist earlier, who was shooting claim after claim after question after question at me about the Catholic Faith/Church and religion in general. One thing that they claimed is that Mother Teresa is just another proof of the Church’s falsity, because she is not really the great saint she is made about to be. He claimed that there is no proof that she did anything miraculous, and, in fact, that she was just a money-collector for the Church. I looked this up for myself and turns out he is not the only one. There is a lot of skepticism of Mother Teresa out there. Just the first result that comes up, summarily put together in a Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Mother_Teresa
Also,
huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html

He says anything defending her is Catholic sourced, so it’s not “proof” of her goodness.
Can anyone offer me some advice on how to deal with this argument?
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So how is the atheist supporting the poor, sick and disabled? It is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize religion and the religious.
 
That movie “The Letters” wasn’t really Christian’ish

Bill D from the Catholic League had a video on YouTube where he “debates” Christopher Hitchens and they discuss in good detail those skeptic claims of Mother Teresa. Look it up it might help.
 
Ambition said:
Hi. I was debating with an atheist earlier, who was shooting claim after claim after question after question at me about the Catholic Faith/Church and religion in general. One thing that they claimed is that Mother Teresa is just another proof of the Church’s falsity, because she is not really the great saint she is made about to be. He claimed that there is no proof that she did anything miraculous, and, in fact, that she was just a money-collector for the Church. I looked this up for myself and turns out he is not the only one. There is a lot of skepticism of Mother Teresa out there. Just the first result that comes up, summarily put together in a Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Mother_Teresa
Also,
huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html

He says anything defending her is Catholic sourced, so it’s not “proof” of her goodness.
Can anyone offer me some advice on how to deal with this argument?
Click to expand...
Two thoughts come to mind from the line I’ve bolded.
  1. Is he talking about miraculous things she did during her life on earth? Canonization is based on miracles attributed to the saint’s intercession after death.
  2. You’re debating an atheist. Of course he’s going to be skeptical of the miraculous.
 
Ambition said:
Hi. I was debating with an atheist earlier, who was shooting claim after claim after question after question at me about the Catholic Faith/Church and religion in general. One thing that they claimed is that Mother Teresa is just another proof of the Church’s falsity, because she is not really the great saint she is made about to be. He claimed that there is no proof that she did anything miraculous, and, in fact, that she was just a money-collector for the Church. I looked this up for myself and turns out he is not the only one. There is a lot of skepticism of Mother Teresa out there. Just the first result that comes up, summarily put together in a Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Mother_Teresa
Also,
huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html

He says anything defending her is Catholic sourced, so it’s not “proof” of her goodness.
Can anyone offer me some advice on how to deal with this argument?
Click to expand...
By Catholic standards, she absolutely is a saint. Atheists have erroneous expectations of what a saint should do and how they should live. There’s a lot of erroneous moral reasoning in the criticisms against Mother Teresa.

Rejecting Catholic sources is prejudicial. It’s a little like doing American history but not accepting any American sources. It’s an erroneous conception of how history is done.

Here are some links that could be of some help:

dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2289203/Mother-Teresas-followers-dismiss-critical-documentary-questioning-saintly-image.html

firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics

firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics
 
Ambition said:
Hi. I was debating with an atheist earlier, who was shooting claim after claim after question after question at me about the Catholic Faith/Church and religion in general. One thing that they claimed is that Mother Teresa is just another proof of the Church’s falsity, because she is not really the great saint she is made about to be. He claimed that there is no proof that she did anything miraculous, and, in fact, that she was just a money-collector for the Church. I looked this up for myself and turns out he is not the only one. There is a lot of skepticism of Mother Teresa out there. Just the first result that comes up, summarily put together in a Wiki article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Mother_Teresa
Also,
huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html

He says anything defending her is Catholic sourced, so it’s not “proof” of her goodness.
Can anyone offer me some advice on how to deal with this argument?
Click to expand...
Most of the things I’ve seen from atheists about Mother Teresa are criticising her idea that suffering is redemptive and accusing her of being some kind of sadomasochist who enjoyed suffering and seeing people suffer. There are no substantial arguments to back up these types of claims. By secular standards alone she was an incredibly good example of humanity and compassion. To say anything else is just mudslinging and slander.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ said that we would be hated because of Him.
 
I think some critics feel the need to put her down so as to feel better about themselves.
One can be assured that all our saints were very holy because the process of declaring someone a Saint is very meticulous and thorough. In fact, when declaring a Saint the investigation requires a “devil’s advocate” who tries to find reasons the person should not become a Saint. That is how cautious the Holy Roman Catholic Church is.
 
To my knowledge, no-one claims that MTOC worked any miracles while she was alive.

Having been a miracle worker is not implied by canonization; only that one lived a demonstrably exemplary holy life and is now a heavenly being.

Miracles attested through intercession after the death are invoked for canonization.

ICXC NIKA
 
jaimeleglise said:
I think some critics feel the need to put her down so as to feel better about themselves.
One can be assured that all our saints were very holy because the process of declaring someone a Saint is very meticulous and thorough. In fact, when declaring a Saint the investigation requires a “devil’s advocate” who tries to find reasons the person should not become a Saint. That is how cautious the Holy Roman Catholic Church is.
Click to expand...
It is my understanding that they no longer use the “devil’s advocate”.

Of course, they still do a thorough investigation.
 
Thanks, Dorothy, I didn’t realize that. I saw that term on the documents for the cause of St. Therese.
 
SaintNobody said:
By Catholic standards, she absolutely is a saint. Atheists have erroneous expectations of what a saint should do and how they should live. There’s a lot of erroneous moral reasoning in the criticisms against Mother Teresa.

Rejecting Catholic sources is prejudicial. It’s a little like doing American history but not accepting any American sources. It’s an erroneous conception of how history is done.

Here are some links that could be of some help:

dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2289203/Mother-Teresas-followers-dismiss-critical-documentary-questioning-saintly-image.html

firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics

firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics
Click to expand...
That is helpful; thank you! 🙂
 
Probably the one thing that I respect most about Mother Teresa, was that she was poor herself, and didn’t do her work as some rich, narcissistic, philanthropist.
 
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