Mother Teresa was a great woman. She work her entire life to help the poor of the world, and is revered all over the world for her charitable deeds. Who would be tasteless enough to pick on her?
Well, besides me, there is writer Christopher Hitchens. Like myself, Hitchens is a free thinker with no use for any kind of supreme being. When looking for some of his writings online, I stumbled on an article entitled, Mommie Dearest
The pope beatifies Mother Teresa, a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.
In his article, Hitchens quotes George Orwell's writings on Gandhi. Orwell wrote "that saints should always be presumed guilty until proved innocent." Reading his article, I discovered how truth of that statement.
One aspect of her life that is less than saintly is her absurd conviction of the most draconian Catholic dogma. According to Hitchens, she was opposed to the Second Vatican Council. That Council, among other things, finally stated that Jews were not responsible for the death of Christ and that non Catholic Christians actually had a chance of going to heaven. This seems like reforms any sane person would defend. She also was over the top on the issue of abortion. Now, I'm aware that abortion is a very serious subject. I myself get queasy when having to discuss it. Yet, when receiving her Noble Prize, she gave a speech calling abortion "the greatest destroyer of peace."
Another area of her life that never gets discussed is the company she kept. Hitchens documents her friendliness to the murderous Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti and her defense of Charles Keating. In the 1980's Keating stole tens of millions of dollar from the Lincoln Savings and Loan. He was a heavy donor to Mother Teresa who, therefore, accepted stolen money. This would be excusable if she didn't know where the money came from. However, after he was convicted no one has seen one dime of the money returned to its rightful owners. Apparently saints are immune to audit.
In reading an article bashing Mother Teresa, one is inclined to dismiss it as atheist propaganda. But, I have looked hard and found all of his facts to be accurate. If someone wanted to criticise his writing they would probably ignore the facts and take the " how dare you" approach. Some presumed saints have minor flaws that simply show that they are human beings. In Mother Teresa's case, the saintly image is cover for a bad person who has conned everyone.
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