St Mother Theresa criticism - Looking for Catholic response

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Someone responded to a Mother Theresa quote I left online. They replied with this. Thoughts?

“You do realize that Mother Theresa herself wasn’t no saint? 🙂 She went to the best doctors when she was sick but when the people in her care were sick she said and I quote “It’s good to see people suffer for our savior Jesus Christ” or something similar but you get the point. The only real saint here was Princess Alice, she pawned her royal jewelries for her people and hid a Jewish family away from the Nazi in her palace. She did amazing things. There was another person in Queen Victoria’s family who did the same, but “Mother” Theresa got all the glory.”
 
My thoughts are that if this is one of your “friends”, block them and get better friends; otherwise, ignore it.

There is no saint or holy person or even Jesus himself who would not draw some kind of bitter, angry response from some messed-up person. The level of vitriol just shows to me how much Satan hates holiness and works hard to influence others to express the hate.

If you must say something, then I would simply post, "Mother Teresa, please pray for this person. Thank you. Amen. "
 
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I’d be interested to hear a reply to this, I come across many stories against her over the years.
 
perhaps taken out of context. What I do know is that
she LOVES the needy and SEEKS them out. When going
to NYC on a trip to address the UN, she noticed a drunk
on the side of the street and quickly went to console him.
Her VIEWS in her speeches might not ring true to many,
but her ACTIONS certainly do, I believe firmly she has the
gift of helps!!
 
Guest1 said:
Someone responded to a Mother Theresa quote I left online. They replied with this. Thoughts?

“You do realize that Mother Theresa herself wasn’t no saint? 🙂 She went to the best doctors when she was sick but when the people in her care were sick she said and I quote “It’s good to see people suffer for our savior Jesus Christ” or something similar but you get the point. The only real saint here was Princess Alice, she pawned her royal jewelries for her people and hid a Jewish family away from the Nazi in her palace. She did amazing things. There was another person in Queen Victoria’s family who did the same, but “Mother” Theresa got all the glory.”
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I’m not sure which Princess Alice the poster is referring to, but Mother Teresa would not have gotten any of the “glory” because she (Mother Teresa) was in India teaching school during WWII. The reference to Princess Alice would infer that she was somewhere on mainland Europe so as to be able hide Jews. I do not think the poster knows what they’re talking about.

Pax
 
Every person has faults and failures (except Jesus!). Criticism is so easy. Living like she did, giving to the degree she did, maybe not so easy. Seriously, if all Christians lived like she did (flaws and all), the world would be a remarkably better place. Maybe people criticize her to excuse themselves from living like she did.
 
Were the patients better off or worse off than the conditions they came from?
 
Here is what I am going to say about mother Teresa.
From what Ive read about her life she had no medical training. They are not nurses. I am a nurse and as I understand (or I may be wrong) Scarlet Nidiyii is a nurse also. We have been trained on infection prevention, the proper administration of medications, proper hygienic practices of patients. We also have infectious disease oversite with our licensed medical organizations. There is a medical team, who specifically overseas my standard of care. And there are policies and protocols in place in which I have been trained to properly isolate patients so that I do not cause infections in anyone else.

This is not the type of education that Mother Teresa had. She was not a trained medical professional, nor were her fellow nuns medical professionals. And as you say in your sources the volunteers were not medical professionals.
She went to India, saw people dieing in the streets, and in slums. And wanted to provide care for these people when noone else would.
Am I surprised that non medical professionals improperly administered medication? No I am not, as a nurse this is actually something that I see frequently.
Am I surprised that there was a lack of resources in how these non medical people segragated infectious disease patients? No I am not. I am a nurse I have this training and knowledge, and medical oversight in my hospital to ensure this is done properly. it does not surprise at all that Mother Teresa’s organization, a group of non medical people providing care for the sick had issues with this.
I am 100% sure that you can find numerous instances in how Mother Teresa and her group of non-medical nuns provided substandard nursing care. Howver. I will argue that they are not nurses and clearly had a lack of medical training. However, I will also argue that these non-medical people still provided a valuable service to people who had nothing.
 
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  1. Mother Teresa wasn’t a medical doctor and neither were the sisters. They just helped people as best they could, which was better than the non-existent care the people were receiving beforehand.
  2. She received medical treatment because she was advised such.
  3. The people that criticize her live in 1st world countries, skimpily donate time or money, and in short, they criticize another person of X, Y, or Z sin, which - even if it were true - is minuscule compared to their own sins.
Peace.
 
I don’t necessarily doubt these reports, but I do take them with a grain of salt. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a lack of hygiene, technology, and proper medical procedure. On the other hand, it seems that the people you’ve referenced may have a bit of an ulterior motive in painting Mother Theresa in this light, and therefore, may not be objective in their reporting.

These houses were primarily a place for people to die with dignity instead of in the streets of the slums, and their scope really didn’t go beyond that. Mother Theresa won a Nobel Peace Prize, and the committee which investigates candidates is pretty thorough. I’m not coming to the defense of Mother Theresa, as I simply don’t know enough to do so. I’m simply cautioning against unmitigated censure.
 
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She was saintly but human she did a lot of good no one is perfect God bless her and she is missed
 
Hitchens, who’s been dead a long time now, had a reputation for trashing a lot of public figures. He didn’t limit himself to Mother Teresa, but also did hatchet jobs on Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Billy Graham. He also was vehemently anti-religion.

The fact that he had an obvious bias and that his stock-in-trade was writing excoriations of various public figures makes his credibility extremely doubtful.

I rarely hear anyone even bring him up nowadays, which makes me think his 15 minutes are up. Mother Teresa will continue to be revered for generations.
 
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Because he made money and got attention doing so. And he did it over and over.

My bias isn’t at issue. I’m not making any money or getting any attention posting here.

Beating up on Mother Teresa, or Billy Graham, or Bill Clinton, is a great way to get all eyes on you and the media beating down your door.

May God have mercy on his soul.
 
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Guest1 said:
Someone responded to a Mother Theresa quote I left online. They replied with this. Thoughts?

"You do realize that Mother Theresa herself wasn’t no saint? 🙂 She went to the best doctors when she was sick but when the people in her care were sick she said and I quote “It’s good to see people suffer for our savior Jesus Christ” or something similar but you get the point.
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I’ve seen this quote offered before (not exactly what you quoted, but to be fair they said they were paraphrasing), but never with any source. Now to be fair, maybe it’s just the cases I saw didn’t include a source but someone else did, but I would insist on a hard source for the quote.

The other part of the post seems to relate to context that isn’t being given here so I can’t really say anything on it.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
…bitter, angry response from some messed-up person…
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Surprised to see this reaction. No, they are not a “messed up person” who you should block. There are a significant number of criticisms of Mother Theresa (Catholics included) that should be considered.

From a Canadian academic journal:
“ The controversy surrounding Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, is far from new. Her saintly reputation was gained for aiding Kolkata’s poorest of the poor, yet it was undercut by persistent allegations of misuse of funds, poor medical treatments and religious evangelism in the institutions she founded.”

“…Mother Teresa undoubtedly inspired others to humanitarian work which has helped many of the sick and poor around the world but suggest that media coverage of Mother Teresa should have been more rigourous”.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/api.na...ews/2016/09/mother-teresa-sainthood-canonized
 
See Ptincess Alice was born, lived and died royal (mother of Prince Phillip, founded an order of nuns in later life, absolutely fascinating person). She HAD jewels to pawn.

Mother Teresa for mine was like.the widow.in scripture who possesses only two copper coins, but gives it all willingly, and so her offering is more acceptable than rich people who give more but comparatively a pittance out of their great wealth.
 
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So the issue is that Mother Teresa accepted medical care that her poor did not have? And this makes her some kind of hypocrite?? The assumption is that a true saint would not only have served the poorest during “business hours” everyday AND eaten the same food as they ate during her work hours AND lived in a dwelling with the same lack of amenities during her off-hours… AND continued working daily with the poor long after “retirement age”… AND ALSO not partake of an ounce of medical care not simultaneously offered to the poor?? Why?! Why, after likening herself to the poorest in 99% of the ways a human possibly could, must she be criticized for not doing so in 100% of the possible ways? 99% isn’t good enough for some people? Are THEY volunteering to be 100% copies of abject poverty themselves WHILE offering their lives as givers -not receivers- of any forms of medical aid? Doubtful.

Besides, I bet doctors were tripping over themselves to care for her. What fabulous credentials for their practice! I don’t think famous people have to seek out top notch medical care… I expect The Best come to YOU for the fame & noteriety.
 
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Were the people she and her nuns took care of better off or worse off than before they received care?
 
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