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Her critics: For a woman who works and lives in one of the most overpopulated areas of the world, Mother Teresa appears to be hopelessly out of touch with reality. For one thing with the resources that she commands, she is not in a position to take care of every unwanted child or even find it a foster home. For another, the economies of most Third World countries cannot sustain such a burden on the population as following Mother’s precept would bring. What’s more, she doesn’t seem to see any difference in a pregnancy that is a result of a failure of birth control and one that is a result of rape or even incest.
FINANCIAL DONATIONS
Mother Teresa: Her position is that she will accept all donations no matter how small, to help the cause of the poor. No money is tainted if it is going to alleviate the suffering of God’s creatures. The end justifies the means.
Her critics: There has long been muted criticism of Mother Teresa for taking donations from questionable sources, but the storm really broke with Christopher Hitchens’ documentary, Hell’s Angel, on Channel Four. In the film, Hitchens took Mother to task for accepting money and honours from such unsavoury characters as the Haitian dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, and the discredited businessman Robert Maxwell, who stole money from his company’s pension fund. Mother’s response was rather predictable: she said she would be praying for Hitchens’ soul.
DEIFICATION OF SUFFERING
Mother Teresa: She opened Nirmal Hriday (Place of the Immaculate Heart) after she was appalled by the sight of destitute men and women dying on the streets with no one to look after or care for them. She tried to get a few of them admitted in hospital and encountered a great deal of resistance. So, Mother decided to open a home where the dying could meet their end with dignity. The place, adjoining the Kalighat Temple in Calcutta, was provided by the chief medical officer of the municipality and the Missionaries of Charity today take in hundreds of people who are on the verge of death and nurse them in their last hours.
Her critics: They say that Mother
Teresa places too high a premium on suffering. Those who are brought into
Nirmal Hriday are often suffering from diseases that require aggressive
treatment. What they are given instead is a sponge-down, cleaning of open
sores with an antiseptic, an injunction to pray to their God and lots of
loving care by their nuns. Mary Loudon, who worked as a volunteer in Nirmal
Hriday, recalls the case of a 15-year-old boy suffering from kidney failure
who was left to die rather than taken to hospital where his condition could
be treated. Medical practitioners say that the hygiene in her homes for
the dying leaves a lotto be desired, with needles being reused on patients
without being sterilised. And that Mother, rather than seeing a higher
good in the suffering of the dying, should be seeking to remove it by painkillers
other than prayer.
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