Teresa of Calcutta

Teresa of Calcutta (Uskub —now Skopje, North Macedonia—, August 26, 1910-Calcutta, September 5, 1997), secular name Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (AFI: [aˈɲɛzə ˈɡɔndʒɛ bɔjaˈdʒiu]) and also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa of Calcutta or Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a naturalized Indian Catholic nun of Albanian origin, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950. For more than 45 years he cared for the poor, sick, orphaned and dying, while guiding the expansion of his congregation, first in India and then in other countries of the world. After her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Her canonization was approved by Pope Francis in December 2015, after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized as extraordinary the healing of a sick Brazilian in state terminal. The official act of canonization took place in Rome on the morning of Sunday, September 4, 2016.

Agnes discovered her vocation at an early age, and by 1928 she had decided that she was destined for religious life. It was then that she chose to change her name to "Teresa" in reference to the patron saint of missionaries, Teresa of Lisieux. Although she spent the next 20 years teaching at the Irish convent of Loreto, she began to care for the sick and for the poor of the city of Calcutta. This led her to found a congregation with the aim of helping the marginalized of society, primarily the sick, the poor and the homeless.

By the 1970s she was internationally known and had developed a reputation as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and defenseless, in part because of Malcolm Muggeridge's documentary and book Something Beautiful for God. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. They were joined by a dozen top-level awards and recognitions, both national and international.

It received praise from many people, governments and organizations. However, he also faced a series of criticisms, including objections from Christopher Hitchens, Michael Parenti, Aroup Chatterjee and the World Hindu Council, who accused him of a reactionary mentality and criticized poor care in his centers. In 2010, on the centenary of her birth, she was honored around the world, and her work praised by Indian President Pratibha Patil.

Biography

Early Years

Nikollë Bojaxhiu, his father.

Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“gonxhe” means “rosebud” or “little flower” in Albanian) was born on August 26, 1910 in Uskub, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, but she used to consider August 27 as her date of birth, since that was the day she was baptized. (1889-1972). His family belonged to the Kosovo Albanian population settled in Shkodër—his father possibly originally from Prizren and his mother from a village near Đakovica. His father, involved in Albanian politics, he died suddenly and mysteriously in 1919 when Agnes was barely eight years old after being transferred to the hospital, for unknown reasons, although it is presumed that it was due to poisoning. After his death, her mother raised her in the womb of the Catholic religion.

By blood and origin I am Albanian. By my vocation I belong to the whole world but my heart belongs entirely to Jesus.

Mother Teresa.

As a child, Agnes attended state school and participated as a solo soprano in her parish choir; in the director's absence, she was even in charge of directing the group. In addition, he belonged to a Marian congregation founded in 1563 and known as Sodalicio de Nuestra Señora, where he began to be interested in the stories of the Jesuit missionaries from Yugoslavia who were in Bengal. From then on he felt the desire to work like them in the India. According to the biography written by Joan Graff Clucas, from an early age Agnes was fascinated by the life stories of the missionaries and her works in Bengal. At the age of five she made her First Communion and at six, her Confirmation; At the age of twelve, she was already convinced that she should dedicate herself to religion. Her final resolution was taken on August 15, 1928, while she was praying in the chapel of the Black Madonna in Letnice, where she frequently went on pilgrimage.

In the convent of Loreto

Mother Teresa's memorial house in Skopie, Macedonia.

On September 26, 1928, shortly after her 18th birthday, she went with a friend to Loreto Abbey, belonging to the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Catholic religious congregation in Rathfarnham, Ireland. From then on, she would never see her mother or sister again. Although she originally came there to learn English (which was the language the Loreto sisters taught children in India), one Once there she was admitted as a postulant and in November 1928 she moved by sea to Calcutta, where she arrived on January 6, 1929. In Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains, she began her novitiate and learned Bengali as well as English. to teach at St. Theresa's School, which was located near her convent. After taking her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a nun on 24 May 1931, she was transferred to St. Mary's College in Entally, east of Calcutta. In that period, she chose to be called by the same name as Teresa of Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. However, because a nurse at the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted to use the Spanishized term of "Teresa" (instead of "Thérèse"). On May 14, 1937, Teresa made her solemn vows while teaching at the Loreto convent school. She worked there for almost twenty years as a history and geography teacher until who, in 1944, became director of the center.

While he enjoyed teaching school, he became increasingly disturbed by the poverty in Calcutta. The 1943 famine in Bengal brought misery and death to the city, while the wave of Hindu-Muslim violence raised in August 1946 plunged the population into despair and terror.

The Missionaries of Charity

The Missionaries of Charity.

On September 11, 1946, already in charge of a school run by the Santa Ana Sisters, Teresa experienced what she later described as the “call within the call”, in reference to having heard God asking her to dedicate her life to the less privileged in society. This happened just on a train trip to Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. She «she was about to leave the convent and help the poor while she lived among them. It was an order. Failure would have meant breaking faith."

After receiving basic medical training in Paris with the financial support of a Catholic Indian businessman, he began working among the poor in 1948 teaching them to read. After taking Indian citizenship in 1950, she trained as a nurse for three months in Patna with the Medical Missionary Sisters of North America, eventually settling in the slums. Initially, she opened a school in Motijhil, Calcutta, and soon began to focus on the needs of the destitute and the hungry. In early 1949, she was joined by a group of young women and laid the foundation for a new religious community to help the "poorest of the poor". Soon her efforts attracted the attention of Indian officials, including the prime minister, who expressed their appreciation of her.

Teresa wrote in her personal journal that her first year of working with the poor was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and so she found it necessary to ask for donations of food and supplies. According to her, during her first months she experienced doubt, loneliness and even the temptation to return to her life in the convent. In her own words:

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. I learned a good lesson today. The poverty of these people must be very difficult for them. While I was looking for a home I walked and walked until my arms and legs hurt me. I thought then how much it should hurt them in their body and soul, looking for a home, for food and for having health. Then the comfort of Loreto [his old order] seduced me. "You just have to say a word and everything will be yours again," the tempter insisted. By my own choice, my God, and because I love you, I want to remain and do whatever your Holy will ask me. I didn't let one tear roll [by his face].

In 1948, he sent a request to the Vatican to start a diocesan congregation; however, in India there were serious political difficulties as a result of its recent independence. Therefore, it might be frowned upon for a European to dedicate herself to the poor in the situation at that time.Her permission to leave the convent was granted in August 1948 when she left the place with only five rupees to help the poorest. people in need. Mother Teresa began to wear a white cotton sari decorated with blue borders instead of her traditional Loreto habit. On October 7, 1950, the Holy See authorized her to inaugurate her new congregation, which she named the Missionaries of Charity. According to Teresa, her mission from then on was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel useless, unloved, or unprotected by society, people who have become a burden to society and who are rejected by everyone."

Although the congregation initially had only 13 members in Calcutta, it eventually grew to over 4,000 members present in orphanages, hospices and AIDS centers around the world. The congregation offered charity and care to refugees, including the blind, the disabled, alcoholics, the elderly, the poor, the homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, or famines.

In 1952, he opened the first home for the dying in Calcutta. After getting help from various Indian officials, he converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. Some time later its name was changed to "Kalighat, the house of the pure heart". All those who arrived in Kalighat received medical attention and were offered the opportunity to die with dignity according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims read the Koran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics got last rites. According to Teresa, "for people who lived like animals, a beautiful death is to die like angels, loved and cherished."

In 1952 we were able to open the first home of the dying. I came up with the first case, the one with a woman lying on the street. The rats and ants were eating it. I took her to the hospital, but they couldn't do anything for her. They had to accept it, because I said I didn't leave there until they took care of it. Then I went to the town hall asking to give me a place to put such bastards, because already on the same day, I had found others who also died in the middle of the street. The public health administrator pointed out to me the temple of Kali, opening me the "darmashalah", where people rested in other times after having worshipped the goddess. The building was empty; the lord asked me if I wanted it. I felt happy to own such a house for various reasons, particularly because it was a centre of worship and devotion of the Hindus. In twenty-four hours we drove our sick and crippled. Since then (and until the early 1970s) we have gathered more than twenty thousand people through the streets of Calcutta, having died about half.

Teresa of Calcutta to Malcolm Muggeridge

In 1955, with the growing number of abandoned children, he opened the "Home of the Child of the Immaculate Heart" institution for orphans and homeless youth. Later, he founded the "Shanti Nagar" center for those individuals suffering from the Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, along with other similar clinics where the Missionaries of Charity provided medical care and food.

In 1964, Pope Paul VI, on the occasion of his trip to Bombay for a Eucharistic congress, gave him a white Lincoln limousine-type vehicle that was later auctioned by Mother Teresa; with the money obtained, he organized an establishment for lepers called "City of Peace", very similar to "Don de la Paz", a rehabilitation center founded by Teresa with the money she obtained along with the John XXIII award in 1971. The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation he awarded a US$15,000 bond which went towards a medical center in Dum Dum. By the 1960s, he had established a large number of hospices, orphanages and leper houses throughout India.

Her order began to spread around the world starting in 1965, when her congregation settled in Venezuela with just five sisters. By 1968, Mother Teresa had opened establishments in Rome, Tanzania and Austria and even spread throughout much of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. At the time of his death, the order operated 610 missions in 123 countries, including work in hospices and homes for people with AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, counseling programs for children and families, orphanages and schools.

The male branch of his congregation was founded in 1963 — the Missionaries of Charity Brothers. On that occasion, lay Catholics and non-Catholics registered as Teresa's collaborators and companions of the sick. In response to requests from many priests, in 1981 she started the Corpus Christi Movement and in 1984 she founded the Missionaries of Charity Fathers with Father Joseph Langford, to combine the professional goals of the sisters with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. As of 2007, the order numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions in schools and homes in 120 countries.

I've never seen any door close. I think that happens because they see that I'm not going to ask, but to give. Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, he's not talking to them.

Mother Teresa.

Between March 26 and December 16, 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War occurred, a warlike confrontation between India and Pakistan, in which women were raped, for which many would have committed suicide, mad or run away In addition, they had been prohibited from marrying and having children during that period. Mother Teresa together with her sisters established places to welcome them and provide them with all the necessary care. The government, for its part, granted the assistance of about 15 more sisters due to the large number of refugees. They were then encouraged to rebuild their marriage, adopt children and return to their villages, for which they were thanked by the Prime Minister, who recounted that these young women should be considered "national heroines".

Mother Teresa in 1980.

In 1982, at the height of the siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children who were trapped in a hospital in that region after negotiating a ceasefire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by workers from the Red Cross, moved through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate young patients.

In the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts into communist countries that had previously ignored the Missionaries of Charity and embarked on dozens of projects. She visited the Armenian Soviet Republic after the Spitak earthquake in 1988 and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In addition, she traveled to assist and care for several hungry people in Ethiopia as well as the victims of the Chernobyl accident —reason for which she obtained the Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee; it should be noted that the Soviet Union considered itself an atheist nation—and those of an earthquake in Armenia.In 1991, Mother Teresa returned to her homeland for the first time and opened a house of Missionaries of Charity Brothers in Tirana.

Mother Teresa in her last years.

By 1996, Teresa was running 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's helpers grew from thirteen to thousands, collaborating in approximately 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York, in 1984, with the goal of operating 19 locations across the country.

On the other hand, Teresa of Calcutta identified as a potential patron Father Damien de Veuster, the apostle of lepers, with a charisma similar to that which characterizes the order of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa explicitly asked John Paul II for a saint who would enable the congregation to continue their work of love and healing:

"Father Damian can be that saint. Holy Father: our lepers and everyone around the world, ask for this gift – a saint and martyr of charity and an example of obedience to our religious. »

Teresa of Calcutta to John Paul II, May 7, 1984.

Mother Teresa was present at Damien de Veuster's beatification mass in Brussels on June 4, 1995, and later credited him with "eliminating fear from the hearts of lepers to recognize the disease, proclaim it and ask for medicine, and the birth of hope to be cured" and the change in attitude of the people and governments towards the victims of leprosy: "More concern, less fear, and willingness to help – at any time and in any all time–».

Last years and death

Mother Teresa's tomb in Calcutta.

Over the years, Mother Teresa's health began to deteriorate more and more at an accelerated rate. In 1983, she suffered a heart attack in Rome while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, she overcame pneumonia during a stay in Mexico, for which she was treated at a California hospital. Affected by new heart ailments, she offered to resign her position as leader of the Missionaries of Charity, but the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted unanimously in favor of her staying and Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order. In 1993 she was admitted to the United Nations Hospital due to lung congestion that It caused a fever, among other symptoms. That same year she developed malaria, which was aggravated by her lung and heart problems, and in Rome she suffered three broken ribs.

In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and fractured her clavicle. By August, she was suffering from left ventricular failure of her heart. She underwent heart surgery, but her health declined markedly. When she became ill again, she made the controversial decision to check herself into a well-equipped hospital in California, which drew criticism. Upon being hospitalized again for heart problems, the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission because he thought she may have been attacked by the devil.

On March 13, 1997, she resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity due to her illnesses and conditions. Sister Maria Nirmala Joshi was chosen to take her place, but she refused to take the title of Mother. In her words, “no one can replace Mother Teresa.” Teresa of Calcutta died on September 5, 1997 at the age of 87 due to cardiac arrest, after waking up with severe back pain and respiratory problems. He was resting in Santo Tomas (Calcutta) a week before his death, in September 1997. The Indian government organized a state funeral for him and, as part of it, his coffin was moved through much of the city on the same carriage in which the remains of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were carried.

Awards and Honors

In India

Mother Teresa was first recognized by the Indian government when she was awarded the Padma Shri Award in August 1962 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969. She went on to receive more notable awards in India. in subsequent years, including the "Bharat Ratna" (the largest awarded to a civilian in India) on March 22, 1980, the "Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana" in 1993, and the "Dayawati Modi" art award in 1995. His official biography was even written by an Indian national, Navin Chawla, and published in 1992.

On August 28, 2010, in commemoration of her centenary, the Indian government issued special five-rupee coins bearing her likeness, with President Pratibha Patil saying, "Dressed in a white sari edged with blue, she and the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity became a symbol of hope for many elderly, destitute, unemployed, sick and abandoned by their families."

In other countries

In 1962, the President of the Philippines presented him with the Ramón Magsaysay Award, intended to "perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism in a democratic society, highlighting work in Southwest Asia." By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become a prominent figure in religion throughout the world. His popularity was possibly due in large part to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, who later published a book with the same title in 1972. Muggeridge was then in a stage of personal spiritual search. During filming, the recorded material was shot in places with little lighting, so it was believed that it would be of low quality, but when editing the content, the team realized that the material was in acceptable conditions. Later, Muggeridge defined the event as a miracle attributed to Mother Teresa herself, although this was denied by other members of the film who said that it was due to the use of a new type of Kodak ultrasensitive film. Muggeridge later complained converted to Catholicism.

President Ronald Reagan gave Mother Teresa the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House in 1985.

At that same time, the Catholic world began to honor her publicly. On January 6, 1971, Pope Paul VI presented him with the "John XXIII" international peace prize, praising his work with the poor, his manifestation of Christian charity, and his efforts for peace. In 1971, she was also awarded the "Good Samaritan" award by the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, after speaking at a symposium about the treatment she had maintained until then with all the rejected people on the streets of Calcutta. In April 1973, became the first recipient of London's Templeton Prize for her work helping the poor and needy in Calcutta. According to the description on the award's official website: "Her heroic work of hers brought true change to those she served and continues to inspire millions around the world."

She was honored by governments and civil organizations, as well as being made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1982 for "service to the Australian community and to humanity in general". he was awarded awards on several occasions, including the Order of Merit in 1983 and honorary United States citizenship on November 16, 1996. His native Albania awarded him the Nation's Gold Honor in 1994. Universities, from both the West and India, awarded him honorary titles.

The president of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini gave Teresa de Calcutta the "Balzan" award (Rome, 1978).

Other international awards she received include the "Mater et magistra" awarded on June 19, 1974 in the United States by the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, a medal struck exclusively for her by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) awarded in Rome in August 1975, the "Pacem in Terris" prize in 1976, the international "Balzan" prize (Rome, 1978) for the "promotion of humanity, peace and brotherhood among the peoples" and the international recognition "Albert Schweitzer" in the United States on October 23, 1975.

In 1979, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for "work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and anguish, which also constitute a threat to peace." Teresa refused to attend the ceremonial banquet given to the awardees, asking that the funds of US$192,000 be given to the poor of India. When Mother Teresa received the award, she was asked: "What can we do to promote the world peace?" and she replied "Go home and love your family." In her conference about the award given to her by King Olaf V of Norway, the nun said: "I accept it for the glory of God and his people, the poorest of the poor." She also noted that abortion is "one of the greatest destroyers of peace."

At the time of his death, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was “a rare and unique person who lived for a long time for higher purposes. Her devotion to life for the care of the poor, the sick and the underprivileged is one of the best examples of service to our humanity." Former UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar expressed: "She is the United Nations, peace in the world". For his part, former US President Bill Clinton defined her as a "giant of our era", and after her death, John Paul II declared: "Her tiny figure lives on in my memory, bent over by a life spent serving the poorest of the poor, but always charged with an inexhaustible inner energy, the energy of Christ's love." During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in Gallup polls on the most admired men and women of the year, being elected in the category of the 10 most appreciated women by Americans around the world. In that category, she ranked first several times in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999, she was considered one of the "most admired women of the 20th century" by a survey in the United States, in which she surpassed the others candidates by a wide margin, ranking No. 1 in all major demographic categories except for the youngest.

Criticism and controversies

Philosophy of life and teachings

Mother Teresa has been accused by one of her detractors, Christopher Hitchens, of having a fundamentalist vision within the Church's own orthodoxy. During the Second Vatican Council, she expressed her opposition to any reform of the Catholic Church. According to her, what was needed was more work and more faith, not a doctrinal revision.Moreover, a key issue in her criticism of her teachings is her constant preaching of comfort and conformism. After the explosion at the Union Carbide multinational chemical plant in Bhopal (India), she immediately went to the scene of the tragedy, where 2,500 people had died. "Forgive, forgive, forgive", he repeated as soon as he got off the plane, without motivating those affected to initiate legal action or prosecute the guilty. "You are suffering like Christ on the cross, so Jesus must be kissing you" Teresa of Calcutta told a cancer patient who was writhing in pain before the cameras. From her bed, she replied: “Please tell him to stop kissing me.” The latter was also criticized, as Teresa felt that suffering in people made them get closer to Jesus.

To this approach, Dr. William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States, responded:

Hitchens also hates Mother Teresa's itinerary, claiming that there is a political motive for her travels. For example, in 1984 she went to comfort those suffering in Bhopal after a chemical explosion of the Carbide Union. While she was there, she asked to forgive those responsible for the plant (Indian government was mostly blamed, even though Hitchens, an anti-capitalist borrower, cannot admit this). So what does Hitchens do with this? He was very offended in the right of her (Teresa de Calcutta) to ask for forgiveness, questioning who "authorizes" her to dispense such virtues in the first place. For Hitchens, her refusal to answer this question (no matter that she had never been asked the question in the first place) is a positive proof that her journey "is interpreted as a hasty exercise in damage control." Damage control for who? For the Carbide Union? Does Hitchens even have a photograph of Mother Teresa and a Union Carbide official to show?

William A. Donohue, March 1996.

To criticism of his strong stance against abortion and divorce, he responded: "No matter who says it, you should accept it with a smile and do your own job." Similarly, his opposition to artificial insemination and the use of contraceptives was criticized; in his words: «I would not give a baby from one of my houses up for adoption to a couple who use contraception. Those who use contraceptives do not understand love."

Hindus' views of Mother Teresa were not uniformly favourable. The major political party Bharatiya Janata Party opposed her mother but praised her after her death, sending a representative to her funeral. The World Hindu Council, on the other hand, opposed the government's decision to hold him a state funeral. Even a reminder from the magazine Frontline denied some accusations promoted by Giriraj Kishore as "completely false" and published that what they had done "does not influence the public perception of her work, especially in Calcutta». The author of the tribute, despite praising her "selfless attention", her energy and vitality, was critical of her public campaigns against abortion.

Care for the sick

Mother Teresa trusts more in providence than in medicine.

Dr. Robin Fox

The quality of care provided to terminally ill patients in nursing homes was similarly criticized by the medical press. Dr. Robin Fox, of the medical journal The Lancet, referred to the insufficiency of physicians, routine treatment and analgesia, while Mary Loudon of the British Medical Journal, reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold water for washing refugees, and a poor focus on illness and suffering, since the use of various elements indicated for modern medical care was inhibited as well as systematic diagnosis. Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, after visiting the centers in Calcutta in 1994, found that patients were not diagnosed with diseases nor were they They administered efficient analgesics. He described medical care as "haphazard, with volunteers without medical knowledge having to make decisions about patient care due to a lack of doctors." He pointed out that his order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, which is why people who could survive were at risk of dying from infections or lack of treatment.

Catholic newspaper author David Scott wrote that Mother Teresa "simply kept people alive rather than fighting poverty itself." In turn, Sanal Edamaruku, president of the organization Rationalist International, in writing, criticized the fact that in some cases they did not use painkillers in their homes for the dying and that the cries of suffering could be heard from people who would have worms in their open wounds without getting pain relief. At first, strong painkillers, even in severe cases, were not given.

In response to criticism by Robin Fox, and explicitly commenting on the issue of painkiller availability, three researchers from English institutions (David Jeffrey, Joseph O'Neill and Gilly Burn) who accredit scientific papers on the practice of medicine in India, they wrote in the medical journal The Lancet: "Even in 1994, the majority of cancer patients seen (in India) had no access to any analgesia, due to lack of adequate medications, knowledge about the use of medications by doctors, as well as, in some cases, ignorance about pain management, aggravated by the lack of resources. Mother Teresa is to be commended for, if nothing else, offering kindness. If Fox were to visit the major institutions run by the medical profession in India, she would seldom see cleanliness, wound care, or kindness. Also, analgesia might not be available."

Colette Livermore, a former missionary of charity, described her reasons for leaving the congregation in her book Hope Endures: Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith, and Searching for Meaning. According to Livermore herself, she found what the nun called the "theology of suffering," which she defined as flawed. However, she described Teresa as a good and brave person. Although she instructed her followers on the importance of spreading the Gospel through actions rather than theological lessons, Livermore could not reconcile this with some of the organization's practices. The examples he cited were unnecessarily refusing to help those in need when they approached the nuns at the wrong time according to their schedules and discouraging nuns from seeking medical training to treat the illnesses they faced (with the justification of that God allows the weak and ignorant).

Chatterjee confessed that the Mother and her official biographers (most notably Navin Chawla) had refused to collaborate in their investigations and that Teresa was unable to "defend herself" from critical coverage in the Western press, citing as an example the report published by the British newspaper The Guardian, which attacked the condition of their orphanages, and the documentary Mother Teresa: Time for Change?, which was broadcast in several European countries.

Donations and Links

Other criticisms of Hitchens related to the origins of some donations and the people with whom he was associated. The nun accepted money from the Duvalier family (François Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude were dictators of Haiti) and publicly praised them. On CBS's Sixty Minutes she publicly stated of Michèle Bennett, Baby Doc's wife: “I have never seen the poor be as familiar with her heads of state as they are with her. For me it is a beautiful lesson ». The images of Teresa of Calcutta pronouncing these words were reproduced for at least a week by Haitian public television. Donohue replied to this:

The Missionaries of Charity in Haiti.

Mother Teresa has assisted the sick and the poor around the world. She does not choose which countries to go on the basis of internal politics, and this explains why she has visited both right-wing repressive nations, like Haiti, as left-wing repressive nations, like Albania. Hitchens cannot digest this and accuse Mother Teresa of serving dictatorships. Now, if your logic is to be followed here, then most Peace Corps workers and Red Cross staff are guilty of courting despots.

William A. Donohue, March 1996

Hitchens also noted that Mother Teresa accepted $1.25 million from Charles Keating, who also granted her the use of a plane and carried a crucifix that she gave him. According to Hitchens, Teresa supported him after his arrest sending a letter to the judge in the case: «I don't know anything about Charles Keating's business. I only know that he has been generous with the poor of God ». Hitchens wrote that prosecutor Paul W. Turley would have been perplexed by reading Teresa of Calcutta's handwritten letter. In January 1992, Charles Keating, the "junk bond king," had defrauded 17,000 small investors in one of America's biggest scandals. According to Hitchens, the justice system did not respond to what he called Teresa of Calcutta's "mercy request", and Keating was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In Calcutta, the director of the Missionaries of Charity reportedly received a letter from the prosecutor informing her of the nature of the scammed money: "I beg you to return the money that Keating stole to the people who earned it with their work. » Mother Teresa did not reply. But William A. Donohue replied to Hitchens:

Keating gave Mother Teresa a million and a quarter of dollars. He doesn't care about Hitchens that all the money has been spent before anyone knew about Keating's embryos. What matters is that Mother Teresa gave the poor a lot of money taken from a rich man who later went to jail. But the greatest crime (of Teresa), according to Hitchens, was to write a letter to Judge Lance Ito [...] “in search of mercy for Mr. Keating”. [...] But she did not do any of that: [...] she did not write a letter «in search of clemency». “I don’t know anything about Mr. Charles Keating’s work,” said Mother Teresa, “or about your business or the issues you are dealing with.” Then she explains her letter saying: “Mr. Keating has done much to help the poor, that is why I address you on your behalf.” However, it is truly remarkable that this written reference of someone who was presumed innocent at that time should be a source of condemnation. It reveals more about Hitchens than its theme, by stigmatizing the letter as an appeal to "clement." It wasn't any of that, but this doesn't matter to someone full of rage. [...] Hitchens wasn't careless about this, just dishonest. He knows very well that there is a world of difference between asking for money to the rich and working for them.

William A. Donohue, March 1996

In 1996, Ireland held a referendum on whether its constitution should continue to prohibit divorce. Mother Teresa flew in from Calcutta to support the vote-no campaign. However, that same year Teresa gave an interview in which she said that she hoped that her friend Diana of Wales would be happier once she had gotten rid of what was evidently an unfortunate marriage.

On the first anniversary of his death, the German magazine Stern published an article on financial issues and the spending of donations. Criticism was made by the medical press stemming from differing perspectives and priorities on the needs of the poor. Other comments came from Tariq Ali, a board member of the publishing house New Left Review, and Irish investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre. Christopher Hitchens and The German magazine Stern stated that Mother Teresa did not focus the use of the money on reducing poverty or improving the conditions of her centers, but used it to open new convents and the increase in missionary work. William A. Donohue replied to Hitchens:

[...] Mother Teresa comes to the poor, not for sentimentality, but for love. No matter how impoverished and degraded the poor are, they remain the children of God, all of whom possess human dignity. This is not something that Hitchens can accept. [...] he cannot understand how Mother Teresa can comfort the terminally ill, saying: "You are suffering as Christ on the cross." [...] Why does Hitchens hate Mother Teresa? Like Mother Teresa, Hitchens is worried about poverty. Unlike her, he doesn't do anything about it. What bothers him most is that the greatest champion in the world of the dispossessed is a modest nun.

William A. Donohue, March 1996

Spiritual life

A particularly notable aspect of Mother Teresa is the profound crisis of faith she faced for nearly five decades of her life, as evidenced in the book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, edited by Brian Kolodiejchuk, which compiles the private letters written by the missionary. Despite this, this was not an obstacle to her beatification process carried out in 2003.

After analyzing her works and achievements, Pope John Paul II said: “Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to put herself totally at the service of others? In the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart". In private and for almost 50 years until the end of her life, Mother Teresa experienced doubts about her religious beliefs, in which "she did not feel the presence of God at all", "neither in her heart nor in the Eucharist", according to her postulator, the Reverend Brian Kolodiejchuk. Mother Teresa not only endured the pain caused by her lack of faith, but also felt grave doubts about the existence of God:

Where is my faith? Even deep down... there's nothing, except empty and dark... If there is a God, please forgive me. When I try to elevate my thoughts to Heaven, there is a vacuum so accusing that those same thoughts return as sharp knives and hurt my soul... How painful is this unknown pain. I have no faith. Rejected, empty, without faith, without love, without zeal... Why do I do this job? If there is no God, there can be no soul. And if there is no soul, Jesus, you are not true either.

Commemorative plaque dedicated to Mother Teresa in a building in Wenceslao Square, in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Referring to the above words, her postulator, Kolodiejchuk (the official responsible for gathering the evidence for her beatification), indicated that there was a risk that some might misinterpret what was said but that the Mother's faith that God was working through it remained intact, and while he lamented the feeling of loss of closeness to God, he did not question its existence. Many other saints had similar experiences of spiritual aridity. Contrary to the erroneous beliefs on the part of some who expressed that these doubts would be an impediment to canonization, this process was carried out without any obstacle in that area.

Mother Teresa felt, after a decade of doubt, a brief period of renewed faith. At the time of Pope Pius XII's death in the fall of 1958, praying for him at a requiem mass, she said that she had been relieved of the "long darkness: that strange suffering." However, five weeks later, she admitted to returning to her believing difficulties.She wrote many letters to her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years. Although she had asked that they be destroyed for fear that people "will think more of me and less of Jesus", they were collected in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Ed. Doubleday). In a publicly released letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, Teresa wrote: "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] As for me, the silence and emptiness are so great, that I look and do not see, I listen and do not hear, my tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak... I want you to pray for me, that I let him have a free hand."

Many news outlets referred to Mother Teresa's writings as indicating a crisis of faith. Some of her critics, such as Christopher Hitchens, took her writings as evidence that her public image was created primarily for publicity despite her personal beliefs and actions. However, others, such as Brian Kolodiejchuk, editor of Come Be My Light, compared her to the 16th-century mystical poet Saint John of the Cross, who coined the term "dark night of the soul" to describe a particular stage of growth for some spiritual teachers. The Vatican indicated that the letters would not stop their path to sainthood. In fact, Kolodiejchuk was their postulator.

In his first encyclical, Deus caritas est, Benedict XVI mentioned Teresa of Calcutta three times and also used her work to refer to one of the main points of the encyclical. "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is an obvious example that time dedicated to God in prayer not only ceases to be an obstacle to effectiveness and dedication to love of neighbor, but is actually an inexhaustible source for it." Mother Teresa specified that "only by mental prayer and spiritual reading can we cultivate the gift of prayer".

Although there was no direct connection between Teresa's congregation and the Franciscan orders, she confessed to being an admirer of Saint Francis of Assisi. Consequently, the life of Teresa of Calcutta and the character of the order show some influence of spirituality franciscan The sisters of the Missionaries of Charity recite Saint Francis' prayer for peace every morning during thanksgiving after Communion, and many of the vows and emphasis of their ministry are similar. Saint Francis also emphasized poverty, chastity, obedience and submission to Christ, dedicating a large part of his life to the service of the poor, especially lepers in the area where he lived.

Beatification and canonization

Statue of Santa Teresa de Calcuta in the Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares, Spain.

After his death, the Holy See considered that the beatification process could begin, considered the third of the four steps to achieve canonization, in which the pope declares the blessed worthy of universal veneration, although to do so, verify two miracles (one more additional to the miracle with which she was classified as blessed). she was healed. Besra commented that she had been taken in by the Missionaries of Charity in Rome after being given up by doctors. One of the sisters placed an image of the Virgin Mary on her abdomen, which had remained on Mother Teresa's tunic for several years. the celebration of the Nobel Prize. The healing of that woman occurred on September 5, 1998, exactly one year after the death of the missionary. Different Indian doctors, the Association of Sciences and Rationalism of India and even Besra's own husband questioned her healing. miraculous in assuring that the disease disappeared due to the medications that she had to take for nine months. On the other hand, another scientific medium cites the healing of Monica Besra from her tumor as one of the main elements in the process of canonization of Teresa of Calcutta.

The Mother's beatification process began two years after her death thanks to a papal dispensation that avoided the expiration of five years from her death, as established by Canon Law. The Vatican summoned Christopher Hitchens to expose some testimony that could compromise and hinder the beatification process. "It was by talking to her that I found out, and she assured me, that she was not working to alleviate poverty," Hitchens said. “She worked to expand the number of Catholics. She told me, 'I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for that. I do it for Christ. I do it for the Church"”. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints was in charge of investigating her statements, but they were later dismissed.

On October 19, 2003, in the presence of some 300,000 people in Saint Peter's Square, she was proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II. The celebration was attended by half a thousand of the Missionaries of Charity, 150 cardinals and 400 bishops. The pope also formally declared September 5 as the feast day of Mother Teresa.

On December 18, 2015, Pope Francis approved the canonization of Teresa of Calcutta after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized as "extraordinary" the healing of a Brazilian sick with multiple brain tumors and hydrocephalus obstructive, who had been subjected to renal transplantation and immunosuppressive therapy in 2008 without results. The Catholic Church maintained that this brain pathology was instantly, completely and permanently resolved on December 9, 2008, and that such resolution was unanimously declared "scientifically inexplicable" by a college of seven physicians. The Church He attributed the miracle to Teresa of Calcutta, who had died 11 years earlier, because the patient's wife said she had entrusted herself to Mother Teresa to save her husband. The official act of canonization, scheduled within the Jubilee of Mercy, took place in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City on the morning of September 4, 2016. Tens of thousands of people gathered for the ceremony, including 15 official government delegations and 1,500 homeless people from all over the world. Italy. The ceremony was televised live on the Vatican channel. Skopje, Mother Teresa's hometown, announced a week of celebration for her canonization, and in India a special Mass was celebrated at the Missionaries of Charity headquarters in Calcutta.

On September 6, 2017, Teresa of Calcutta was named co-patron of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, along with Saint Francis Xavier, who had been since 1986.

Legacy and representations in popular culture

Commemorations

Mother Teresa International Airport.

In 1984, the American publisher Marvel Comics published a comic based on his life and work. The authors were screenwriter David Michelinie and cartoonists John Tartaglione and Joe Sinnott.

In March 1998, a plaque was placed on her birth residence, which reads: "Here is the house where Gondza Bojadziu, Mother Teresa, was born on August 26, 1910." That same year Lion Communications (Polygram Records) released a musical album, Mother, We'll Miss You, as a posthumous tribute that includes the participation of several singers from different countries, among them José Feliciano, the gospel singer Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago group. It featured the production of Scottish singer Dave Kelly. After the release of the compilation, several American newspapers, such as the Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer, published articles related to the life and work of Mother Teresa.

Since her death, some Hindu groups venerate her as a goddess.

She was also honored through museums, naming her patron saint of several churches, and with several monuments and paths. In 2002, the Albania International Airport was named after her, something similar to what happened with a square in Tirana where there is a monument dedicated to the missionary, with one of the main streets of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, and with an Albanian civil hospital, the Hospital of Mother Teresa (Leka of Albania's place of death).

On August 30, 2009, a street in the Bronx borough of New York City was named "Mother Teresa Way." That stretch is part of Lydig Avenue, and its designation was achieved after the Albanian Society of America lobbied for 16 years for the city to agree to dedicate a road to Mother Teresa. In Skopje, a museum recounting with a varied amount of objects and belongings of the religious. In one of her rooms there is a replica of her birth house made by the artist Vojo Georgievski and it also has a memorial park named after her.

Mother Teresa University for Women, in Kodaikanal, was established in 1984 as a public university by the Governorate of Tamil Nadu. Several tributes have been published in Indian newspapers and magazines authored by her biographer, Navin Chawla.

Indian Railways introduced a new train, "Mother Express", named after Mother Teresa, on 26 August 2010 to commemorate the centenary of her birth. The Tamil Nadu state government organized celebrations on the occasion of her centenary on December 4, 2010 in Chennai, led by Head of Government Muthuvel Karunanidhi.

In Argentina, the Mother Teresa award has been given since 2000 with the objective of «promoting values in society, generating in the community, especially among young people and adolescents, incentives and models to follow and imitate; for their human and spiritual growth".

Cinema and literature

• Mother Teresa is the central theme of the documentary film and the book Something Beautiful for God1969 and 1972 respectively.
• The 1997 film Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poorstarring Geraldine Chaplin, he won a prize at the Art Film Festival.
• In 2003 an Italian miniserie was premiered by Olivia Hussey, entitled Mother Teresa of Calcutta (which was relaunched in 2007 and received a CAMIE award).
• It was also played by Megan Fox in a 2007 satirical film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
• In 2014, the film was released The Letterson the spiritual life of the religious, based on his exchange of letters with the Jesuit priest Celeste van Exem.
• Hamanece in Calcutta is a 2021 documentary by Spanish director José María Zavala.

Further reading

• Universal Student Clan Encyclopedia, Argentina: Clarín (edited by Graphic Arts Rioplatense), 2003, ISBN 950-782-320-4.
• Dhavamony, Mariasusai (2004), Mother Teresa. Meditations, Editorial Bonum, ISBN 97895076994.
• Doig, Desmond (1997), Mother Teresa of Calcutta: her people and her work, Editorial Sal Terrae, ISBN 9788429312195.
• Egan, Eileen (2005), Mother Teresa: her preferred prayers, Editorial Bonum, ISBN 97895075782.
• Gjergji, Lush (1987), Mother Teresa of Calcutta: complete biography, Encounter, ISBN 9788474901764.
• Kolodiejchuk, Brian (2008), Mother Teresa. The private letters of Calcutta, Planet, ISBN 978-84-08-07712-1.
• Le Joly, Edward (2002), Mother Teresa: we do it for Jesus, Editions Word, ISBN 9788471189899.
• Oki, Morihiro (1998), Mother Teresa, love without limits, Encounter, ISBN 9788474904864.
• De Córdoba, María Fernández (2000), Teresa of Calcutta. The mother of the poorest, Editorial Casals S.A, ISBN 84-218-2072-9