Date: 04 Jun 96 19:27:03
From: Sean McCullough
To: All
Subj: Hitchens on Mother Teresa Cult/Bk Review
____________________________________________________________________________
* Forwarded from "Alternative News"
* Originally by eskinews!blythe.org!nyt
* Originally to All
* Originally dated 2 Jun 1996, 7:59
From: NY Transfer News Collective
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 10:59:51 -0400 (EDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
from Green Left Weekly #234 6/5/96
A hard look at the Teresa cult
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
By Christopher Hitchens
Verso, 1995. 98pp., $22.95
Reviewed by Norm Taylor
Christopher Hitchens has provided many fascinating revelations about the
world of Albanian nun Agnes Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa of
Calcutta. He refers to her as being on the fast track to sainthood whilst
dominating a missionary multinational. He questions the fitness of a very
old virgin to adjudicate on matters of sex and reproduction, and looks
with suspicion at her genial relations with dictators, corrupt tycoons and
convicted frauds.
The Missionary Position provides an extremely interesting exposure of the
Teresa cult. As the emissary of a very determined and politicised papacy,
she is a very successful campaigner on behalf of her Missionaries of
Charity organisation, with its 4000 nuns and 40,000 lay workers.
Less well known is her fanatical campaign against contraception and
abortion. When asked if she would agree that there are too many children
in India, Mother Teresa replied, ``I do not agree because God always
provides. He provides for the flowers and the birds, for everything in the
world that he has created. And these little children are his life. There
can never be enough.'' The author remarks, ``If it were true that god
always provides, then obviously there would be no need for the
Missionaries of Charity in the first place''.
Mother Teresa has been favoured with huge sums of money during the past 30
years, but illnesses have been wrongly diagnosed by unqualified sisters
and volunteers unable to distinguish between the curable and incurable.
Mother Teresa prefers providence to planning, and the very strictest
economy is always enforced.
While $50 million remains in a cheque account in the Bronx, needles are
used over and over again and are rinsed under a cold water tap. Mother
Teresa's global income is more than enough to equip several first class
clinics, like some of the finest and costliest clinics and hospitals in
the west that she herself has checked into.
A sign on the wall of the morgue of Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying
reads, ``I am going to heaven today''. Mary Loudon, a volunteer in
Calcutta, was shocked by what she saw there. ``It looked a bit like the
photos of Belsen'', she said. ``All patients had shaved heads, there were
old stretcher beds, no chairs, and not much medical care or
pain-killers.''
In another home, ``The sisters were rarely allowed to spend money on the
poor they were trying to help. Instead they were forced to plead poverty,
thus manipulating generous credulous people into giving more goods,
services and cash.''
Mother Teresa has a San Francisco hostel named the Gift of Love, for
homeless men with HIV. They are not allowed to watch TV or smoke or drink
or invite friends, not even when they are dying and so of course are
exceptionally depressed. One man said how afraid he was of dying without
morphine. It is hard to find anyone with a good word to say for the Gift
of Love.
Charles Keating was a notorious swindler now serving a 10-year sentence
for his part in the US savings and loan scandal. He was generous with the
money he stole from small investors; he gave Mother Teresa $1.25 million
and the use of his private jet. In return she allowed him to make use of
her prestige on several important occasions.
During Keating's trial, she wrote to the court seeking clemency for the
Catholic fundamentalist and notorious thief. It was a suspiciously naive
letter which did nothing to convince the judge. It prompted the deputy
district attorney in Los Angeles County, Paul W. Turley, to write with
some facts about Keating's crimes, about which Mother Teresa claimed she
knew nothing.
After referring to Keating's conviction for defrauding 17 individuals of
$900,000 Turley concluded: ``You urge Judge Ito to look into his heart -
as he sentences Charles Keating - and do what Jesus would do. I submit the
same challenge to you. Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given
the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were in possession of
money which had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were being
exploited by a thief to ease his conscience? I submit that Jesus would
promptly and unhesitatingly return the stolen property to its rightful
owners. You should do the same. You have been given money by Mr Keating
that he has been convicted of stealing by fraud. Do not permit him the
`indulgence' he desires. Do not keep the money. Return it to those who
worked for it and earned it! If you contact me I will put you in direct
contact with the rightful owners of the property now in your possession.''
Three years later Turley has received no reply to his letter. Nor can
anybody account for the missing money: saints, it seems, are immune to
audit.
-30-
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* Origin: A Believer's Ultimate Victim Is Himself. (1:128/203.666)
