Mother Teresa AKA “Hell’s Angel” — Other Side Of The Coin!
Modern-day documentaries claim her display of care was all a charade to hide her evangelist objectives. According to her critics, Mother Teresa was no saint.
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was born in August 1910 in the capital of North Macedonia and was later renamed Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu which eventually changed to her being known as Mother Teresa.
She worked hard to help the poor in Calcutta and was the recipient of 120 prestigious awards and honors including the Nobel Prize in 1979. The people called her the “saint of the gutters” and in September of 2016, nineteen years after her death, Pope Francis canonized her officially as a Saint.
She became a household name for Christians as her work became an ambassador for “Christian Charity”. Her admirers were not restricted to India, and she was praised and adored globally. Despite all her apparent praise, many critics claimed her to be nothing but a fraud and even went as far as declaring her “Hell’s Angel”. Here are some of the many accusations leveled against her.
Fraudulent motives stemmed from racism
When Teresa was 18 years old, she became part of the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. There she officially changed her name to Sister Mary Teresa, and in the coming year, she moved to India and became a teacher at an all-girls Catholic School.
In 1946, she received what she described to be a “call within a call” that urged her to give up teaching and instead devote her life to the service of the poor of Calcutta.
Four years later, the Vatican approved Mother Teresa’s order of nuns called the Missionaries of Charity. All the nuns undertook vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, promising to wholeheartedly devote themselves in service to the slums of Calcutta. Despite her devotion to charity, many critics called her out for how she viewed India’s poverty.
A well-known author and journalist, Mihir Bose, said Mother Teresa was complacent to the societal laws that had caused people to be trapped in poverty cycles and had no ambition to make changes that would save the poor. Bose felt that her work was only based on “rescuing the souls” of the poor, and was not at all targeted at the root cause of the problem.
Christopher Hitchens, a British author also seconded these beliefs. He said that Mother Teresa was an ally of the status quo and her belief that the poor should submit to poverty was not an all-encompassing belief of Christians.
They weren’t far off, as she herself claimed there was beauty in seeing the poor accept their fate, and often drew comparisons between their suffering and Christ’s passion. She also often positioned herself as the “white savior” of the poor and uncivilized brown man, and her motives were laced with racism and colonialism.
Non Consensual Baptizations of the Dying
In 2015, Mohan Bhagwat the head of the Hindu Nationalist group in India claimed that mother Teresa’s work for the destitute had ulterior motives, she worked not to relieve the poor of their suffering but rather to convert them to Christianity.
The nuns were charged with secretly baptizing the dying person under the guise of cooling the patient’s forehead with a damp cloth. Muslim and Hindu patients were not provided with the necessary information and were thus converted and baptized without consent.
Though on several occasions, she rejected these claims, on others she was known to say that a dying person did not have to know the entire concept of Christianity to be baptized, so there may still be truth in these accusations.
Association with the corrupted
In 1980, Mother Teresa was awarded by the President of Haiti, Baby Doc Duvalier with a Legion of Honour award. However, it was well known that under Duvaliers presidency, thousands of people had been killed, tortured, and forced into exile.
He was famously corrupt and stole from the people to fund his and his family’s extravagant lifestyle. But Mother Teresa gave press statements defending Duvalier and claimed he was “one for the poor”.
She also accepted an award from President Regan, who armed and paid death squads in Central America and was also accused of the murder of nuns and the Catholic archbishop of San Salvador. When asked about him, Mother Teresa defended Regan and said she had no interest in politics, dismissing the very real criminal cases against him.
She also often fraternized with Charles Keating, who was one of the key figures in the 1980s savings and loan crisis which caused American taxpayers a financial loss of $124 billion. He donated millions to her charities and gave her a private jet for her commute. In return, she gave a character statement on his behalf in court.
The Care at her Clinics was Woeful
The most serious of the claims made against Mother Teresa is regarding her clinic, the Home for Dying Destitutes in Calcutta. Since there was a lack of medical professionals in these clinics, most of the decisions made were by uneducated nuns leading to the death and injury of many inhabitants in these clinics. Patients were prescribed expired medications, and refused consultation with professionals because if “we take one to the doctors, we will have to take them all”.
These clinics were rightfully described to be cults of suffering and death and had they been actual medical institutions, would be subject to serious consequences.
Mother Teresa also used her influence to impose conventional Christian beliefs, condemning abortion and contraception, which in itself is a crime in medicine.
A war of views?
While her devotees refute these claims, it is impossible to ignore the very solid evidence available against her. This is not to say that none of her work had a positive impact, but a reminder that no human, no matter how apparently compassionate can be labeled a “Saint”.
There are numerous portrayals around the world that sings the popularity of Mother Teresa. This unquestioned celebration needs a solid reflection at this point. The conviction of helping and harming the individuals at the same time was an opportunity cost and should not be taken as an excuse for Mother Teresa’s glory.
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