Mother Theresa

 




I recently came across one of those articles that purports to tell us how “evil” Mother Teresa was, called “Mother Teresa is no saint”. The article was written by an Indian-American (I presume) woman, Krithika Varagur, who has recently graduated from Harvard. But in the comments section below I found this great reply written by an Indian woman who had volunteered in Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity.

“I am not Catholic, nor will I ever be. And I am not well versed in American, but an English dictionary gives more than one meaning for the word saint and for me the meaning that applies to Mother Teresa is 'one of the blessed dead'. Simply because she really is a human being that I would remember as worthy of being blessed. I don’t believe she had supernatural powers, I don’t believe she did any of the miracles that the Catholic Church is ascribing to her right now. But that doesn't mean I'm going to trash her life's work like you are doing right now, Krithika. How dare you? The miracle of Mother Teresa is that she got up every morning and persisted in a difficult, thankless task to the best of her ability, despite times when she even doubted herself. I live in a country that was many times worse off when Mother came here before we got independence. When Christopher Hitchen’s ancestors were starving us of our grain so that they could feed troops protecting territories stolen by the British all around the world. When people in West Bengal were literally dying on the streets. You're quoting Hitchens to us? What on earth did he ever do that benefitted anyone but himself? I have volunteered in one of Mother's homes. I have seen how well the children there were looked after. Food, clothing and yes, MEDICINE and most importantly, love. The enormity of the situation that order took on may not be apparent to you, but believe me it is a difficult task and they do it to the best of their ability. 'Forced conversion?' Were you there, Krithika? An Indian on average is a religious person and I doubt very much that any Indian that is homeless, ill and dying would object to someone saying a prayer for them in whatever religion. Or are you not aware that many Indians will visit temples as well as churches and dargahs and gurudwaras. If you haven’t already, I would strongly suggest you volunteer at one of the Missionaries of Charity (MOC) homes run in India and get a first hand view, instead of trashing a woman's hard work based on other people's opinions. You won't be able to volunteer in Yemen because terrorists just killed all the nuns there and blew the place up. So you see, sometimes 'hobnobbing' with dangerous people to do good doesn't always work out. But unlike you and me, The MOC will keep trying.”