Who is mark zilma and why is he saying those things about Mother Teresa?

[yponce]

I’m trying to bring back a friend who is a former Catholic. He is now part of a group who claims to be Christians, and hates Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists, and specialises in unearthing former Catholic priests and nuns who now denigrate Catholics.
Today, he called Mother Teresa “that woman” and cited a Catholic, Mark Michael Zilma, who wrote a book questioning her eligibility for sainthood. Zilma seems obsessed particularly with one particular quotation from her: “I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic” But aside from this, Zilma seems to be orthodox in his views (see his profile and lists in Amazon.com: amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/ASLYBWCHILU2P/ref=cm_pdp_pop_prof_name.

Anybody know anything else about him?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Cluny]

Mr. Zima is a former religious brother of two missionary communities: the Brothers of Our Lady of Reconciliation and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

What do these words about his religious past suggest to you? (It’s from the amazon.com profile about him.)

I have met the Slaves of the IHM. They are the remains of the Feenyites and are sedevacantist.

The Brothers of Our Lady of Reconcilation is listed on the traditio.org site, which is basically a clearing house for Tridentine Rite Congregationalists–independent priests and chapels.

(I will confess here to my own folly of trying to reinvent the church. Don’t you fall into the same trap.)

 

[yponce]

Thanks, Cluny.

That info about the slaves of the IHM sure indicates to me where Mark Zima (not Zilma as in my original posting) is coming from.

What is unfortunate is that, according to his blog (quoting from his book)there is this line from Mother Teresa that rebuts his claim that she is promoting syncretism and indifferentism:

“I love all religions but I am in love with my own. If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there. They come closer and closer to God. When they come closer, they have to choose”

I think that is a good technique, when you are surrounded by literally a billion people most of whom are Hindus and Muslims of the invincibly ignorant kind. (I hope nobody is offended by the term “invincible ignorance” as I am using it in the sense of the second paragraph in this article of the Catholic Encyclopedia: newadvent.org/cathen/07648a.htm)).

I think most converts, before they got converted, got close enough to God that they eventually realise Rome is the way home.

And I think if Mark Zima only interpreted Mother Teresa’s words this way, he wouldn’t be soo anxious about her being a good Catholic.

One last thing, anybody out there who knows where we Mother Teresa’s authentic words and writings can be found, aside from Come be my Light? A number of beautiful quotations allegedly from Mother Teresa are circulating all over, but I will not be surprised if somebody will get an extract from, say, the Q’uran and say it was she who said it and everybody else will repeat it.

There must be some sort of canon of reliable Mother Tersa quotations where the provenance of any old quote can be checked.