Hembram Bakhul: Create new page criticism of Mother Teresa

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Create new page criticism of Mother Teresa

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{{Short description|Criticisms of Mother Teresa's charity work}}
[[File:Mother Teresa 1.jpg|alt=|thumb]]
The work of [[Catholic nun]] and [[missionary]] [[Mother Teresa|Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu]], commonly known as Mother Teresa and from 2016 as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, received mixed reactions from prominent people, governments and organisations. Her practices, and those of the [[Missionaries of Charity]], the order which she founded, were subject to numerous controversies. These include objections to the quality of medical care which they provided, suggestions that some deathbed baptisms constituted [[forced conversion]], and alleged links to [[colonialism]] and [[racism]].

==Media criticisms==
Indian author and physician [[Aroup Chatterjee]], who briefly worked in one of Mother Teresa's homes, investigated the financial practices and other practices of Teresa's order. In 1994, two British journalists, [[Christopher Hitchens]] and [[Tariq Ali]], produced a critical British [[Channel 4]] documentary, ''[[Hell's Angel (documentary)|Hell's Angel]]'', based on Chatterjee's work. The next year, Hitchens published ''[[The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice]]'', a book that repeated many of the accusations in the documentary. Chatterjee published ''The Final Verdict'' in 2003, a less polemical work than those of Hitchens and Ali, but equally critical of Teresa's operations.<ref name=Dutta>{{cite news |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=176802&sectioncode=40 |title=Saint of the gutters with friends in high places |author-last=Dutta |author-first=Krishna |date=16 May 2003 |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |access-date=4 March 2011}}</ref> In 2003, after Teresa was [[Beatification|beatified]] by John Paul II, Hitchens continued his criticism, calling her "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud." He further criticised the Catholic Church for attributing the recovery of a patient to a [[miracle]], and for ignoring the testimony of the patient's doctor, who attributed the recovery of his patient to modern medicine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2003/10/mommie_dearest.html|title=Mommie Dearest|first=Christopher|last=Hitchens|author-link=Christopher Hitchens | publisher=Slate|date=2003-10-20|access-date=2018-03-23}}</ref> Chatterjee and Hitchens were called by the [[Holy See|Vatican]] to present evidence against Teresa during her [[canonisation]] process.<ref name=Crawley>{{cite news |author=Crawley, William |author-link=William Crawley|title=Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict? |work=BBC |date=26 Aug 2010 |access-date=18 Dec 2015 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2010/08/mother_teresa_the_final_verdic.html}}</ref>

== Quality of medical care ==
In 1994, Robin Fox, then editor of the British medical journal ''[[The Lancet]],'' visited the [[Kalighat Home for the Dying|Home for Dying Destitutes]] in Calcutta (now [[Kolkata]]) and described the medical care the patients received as "haphazard".<ref name=Fox>{{cite journal |author=Fox, Robin |title=Mother Teresa's care for the dying |journal=The Lancet |volume=344 |issue=8925 |pages=807–808 |year=1994 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(94)92353-1|pmid=7818649 |s2cid=54305918 }}</ref> He observed that sisters and volunteers, some of whom had no medical knowledge, frequently made decisions about patient care because of the lack of doctors in the hospice: "There are doctors that call in from time to time," Fox wrote, "but usually the sisters and volunteers (some of whom have medical knowledge) make decisions as best they can."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Fox|first=Robin|date=September 17, 1994|title=Calcutta Perspective: Mother Theresa's care for the dying|journal=The Lancet|volume=344|issue=8925|pages=807–808|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(94)92353-1|pmid=7818649|s2cid=54305918|via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> Fox witnessed one patient with high fever being treated with [[paracetamol]] and [[tetracycline]], an antibiotic, only to be later diagnosed with [[malaria]] by a visiting doctor, who prescribed [[chloroquine]]. Fox specifically held Teresa responsible for these conditions in the Home, writing, Mother Teresa "prefers providence to planning".<ref name=":0" /> Fox also observed that staff either declined {{citation needed|date=July 2020}} to use or lacked access to blood films or "simple algorithms that might help the sisters distinguish" between [[curability|curable and incurable]] patients: "Investigations, I was told, are seldom permissible".<ref name=":0" />

Fox conceded that the regimen he observed included "cleanliness, the tending of wounds and sores, and loving kindness", but critiqued the sisters' "spiritual approach" to managing pain: "I was disturbed to learn that the [[Formulary (pharmacy)|formulary]] includes no strong [[analgesic]]s. Along with the neglect of diagnosis, the lack of good analgesia marks Mother Theresa's approach as clearly separate from the [[Hospice|hospice movement]]. I know which I prefer."<ref name=":0" />

Mary Loudon, who volunteered at the same facility, observed "syringes run under cold water and reused, aspirin given to those with terminal cancer, and cold baths given to everyone"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Loudon|first=Mary|date=1996-01-06|title=The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=17592151&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA17899217&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs|journal=British Medical Journal|language=en|volume=312|issue=7022|pages=64–66|doi=10.1136/bmj.312.7022.64a|s2cid=58762491}}</ref> as well as overcrowding.
There have been a series of other reports documenting inattention to medical care in the order's facilities.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} Similar points of view have also been expressed by some former volunteers who worked for [[Missionaries of Charity|Teresa's order]]. Mother Teresa herself referred to the facilities as "Houses of the Dying".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Robin Fox|title=Mother Teresa's care for the dying|journal=[[The Lancet]]|year=1994|volume= 344|issue=8925|pages=807–808|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(94)92353-1|pmid=7818649|s2cid=54305918}}; ''cf''. "Mother Teresa's care for the dying," letters from David Jeffrey, Joseph O'Neill and Gilly Burns, ''[[The Lancet]]'' 344 (8929): 1098</ref>

In 2013, in a comprehensive review<ref name=Larivee>{{cite journal |author1=Larivée, Serge |author2=Carole Sénéchal |author3=Geneviève Chénard |title=Les côtés ténébreux de Mère Teresa |journal=Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=319–345 |year=2013 |doi=10.1177/0008429812469894|s2cid=144593256 }}</ref> covering 96% of the literature on Mother Teresa, a group of [[Université de Montréal]] academics reinforced the foregoing criticism, detailing, among other issues, the missionary's practice of "caring for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it, ... her questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of the enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding, in particular, abortion, contraception, and divorce". Questioning the Vatican's motivations for ignoring the mass of criticism, the study concluded that Mother Teresa's "hallowed image – which does not stand up to analysis of the facts – was constructed, and that her beatification was orchestrated by an effective media relations campaign" engineered by the Catholic convert and anti-abortion [[BBC]] journalist [[Malcolm Muggeridge]].<ref name=UdeM>{{cite web|title=Mother Teresa: Anything but a Saint... |publisher=U de M Nouvelles |date=1 March 2013 |url=http://www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/udem-news/news/20130301-mother-teresa-anything-but-a-saint.html |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401151627/http://www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/udem-news/news/20130301-mother-teresa-anything-but-a-saint.html |archive-date=2016-04-01 }}</ref>

== Baptisms of the dying ==
According to [[Christopher Hitchens]], Mother Teresa encouraged members of her order to secretly [[baptism|baptise]] dying patients, without regard to the individual's religion. Susan Shields, a former member of the Missionaries of Charity, writes that "Sisters were to ask each person in danger of death if he wanted a 'ticket to heaven'. An affirmative reply was to mean consent to baptism. The sister was then to pretend that she was just cooling the patient's head with a wet cloth, while in fact she was baptising him, saying quietly the necessary words. Secrecy was important so that it would not come to be known that Mother Teresa's sisters were baptising Hindus and Muslims."<ref name="Hitchens2012">{{cite book |author=Christopher Hitchens |author-link=Christopher Hitchens | title=The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3qoIwJWGLIC&pg=PT51 |date=24 April 2012 |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |isbn=978-0-7710-3919-5 |pages=51–}}</ref>

Murray Kempton has argued that patients were not provided sufficient information to make an informed decision about whether they wanted to be baptised and the theological significance of a Christian baptism.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Kempton |first1=Murray |title=The Shadow Saint |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/07/11/the-shadow-saint/ |website=www.nybooks.com |publisher=The New York Review of Books |access-date=18 December 2015}}</ref> [[Pierre Ryckmans (writer)|Simon Leys]], defending the practice in a letter to the ''New York Review of Books'', argued that [[forced conversion]] is either benevolent or morally neutral.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Leys |first1=Simon |author-link=Pierre Ryckmans (writer) |title=In Defense of Mother Teresa |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/09/19/in-defense-of-mother-teresa/ |publisher=The New York Review of Books |access-date=18 December 2015}}</ref>

== Relationships with controversial public figures ==
In ''[[Hell's Angel (documentary)|Hell's Angel]]'' and ''[[The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice|The Missionary Position]]'', Hitchens leveled criticism at what he perceived to be Mother Teresa's endorsement of the government of [[Enver Hoxha]] in [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Socialist Albania]]. She visited Albania in August 1989, where she was received by Hoxha's widow, [[Nexhmije Hoxha|Nexhmije]], [[Foreign relations of Albania|Foreign Minister]] [[Reis Malile]], [[Minister of Health]] Ahmet Kamberi, the [[Chairman of the People's Assembly]] [[Petro Dode]], and other state and party officials. She subsequently laid a bouquet on [[Mausoleum of Enver hoxha|Hoxha's grave]], and placed a wreath on the statue of [[Mother Albania (statue)|Mother Albania]].<ref name=hitchens1995>{{cite book |last1=Hitchens |first1=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Hitchens |url=https://archive.org/details/missionarypositi00chri |url-access=registration |title=The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice |location=London |publisher=Verso |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/missionarypositi00chri/page/82 82] |isbn=978-1-85984-054-2 |access-date=22 August 2014 }}</ref>

She accepted money from the British publisher [[Robert Maxwell]],<ref>{{cite news|last1=Squires|first1=Nick|title=Mother Teresa's legacy under cloud as sainthood nears|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/04/mother-teresas-legacy-under-cloud-as-sainthood-nears/|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=4 September 2016|access-date=20 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Woods|first1=Mark|title=Mother Teresa and her critics: Should she really be made a saint?|url=http://www.christiantoday.com/article/mother.teresa.and.her.critics.should.she.really.be.made.a.saint/94365.htm|website=Christian Today|publisher=Christian Media Corporation|access-date=20 January 2017}}</ref> who, as was later revealed, embezzled UK£450 million from his employees' pension funds. There is no suggestion that she was aware of any theft before accepting the donation in either case. Criticism does focus on Teresa's character statement produced in the [[Charles Keating]] case, where Keating was charged with fraud following high-profile business failures. Keating had donated millions of dollars to Mother Teresa and had lent her his private jet when she visited the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10739998/Charles-Keating-obituary.html |title=Charles Keating – obituary |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date=2 April 2014}}</ref> Keating's convictions were thrown out on appeal, as was a summary judgement.<ref name="nyt040496">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/04/us/us-judge-overturns-state-conviction-of-keating.html|title=U.S. Judge Overturns State Conviction of Keating|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1996-04-04}}</ref><ref name="nyt120396">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/03/business/judge-throws-out-keating-s-verdict.html|title=Judge Throws Out Keating's Verdict|author=Sterngold, James|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1996-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/07/business/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-keating.html|title=Appeals Court Rules In Favor of Keating|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1999-08-07}}</ref> Keating later pled guilty to four counts of [[wire fraud|wire]] and [[bankruptcy fraud]] and was sentenced to time served.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pr/072.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990921172635/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pr/072.htm|archive-date=1999-09-21|title=Charles Keating pleads guilty to federal fraud charges; four criminal convictions resolve 10-year-old case|date=April 6, 1999|publisher=United States Attorney for the Central District of California|author=Mrozek, Thom}}</ref>

After Indian Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]]'s suspension of civil liberties in 1975 ([[The Emergency (India)|The Emergency]]), Mother Teresa said: "People are happier. There are more jobs. There are no strikes." These approving comments were seen as a result of the friendship between Teresa and the Congress Party. Mother Teresa's comments were criticised by some outside India within the Catholic media.<ref name=Chatterjee>{{cite book |author=Chatterjee, Aroup |author-link=Aroup Chatterjee |title=Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict |publisher=Meteor Books |date=2002 |page=276 |isbn=9788188248001}}</ref>

She supported [[Licio Gelli]]'s nomination for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/febbraio/17/Licio_Gelli_merita_vittoria_parola_co_9_060217129.shtml|title="Licio Gelli si merita la vittoria": parola di Madre Teresa e Mahfuz|publisher=Corriere della Sera|first=Dario|last=Fertilio|language=it|date=17 February 2006}}</ref> Gelli was known for being the head of the [[Propaganda Due]] [[Freemasonry|masonic]] lodge, which was implicated in various murders and high-profile corruption cases in Italy, as well as having close connections with the [[neo-fascist]] [[Italian Social Movement]] and the [[National Reorganization Process|Military Junta who ruled during Argentina's last dictatorship]] (1976-1983).

In 2017, investigative journalist [[Gianluigi Nuzzi]], in a book titled ''Original Sin,'' published accounting documents from the controversial Vatican Bank – officially known as the [[Institute for the Works of Religion]] – which revealed that the funds which were held in Mother Teresa's name on behalf of her charity had made her the Bank's biggest client, and they amounted to billions. Had she made substantial withdrawals, the Bank would have risked default.<ref>Gianluigi Nuzzi "Peccato Originale" Chiarelettere, 2017</ref><ref>Nadeau, Barbie Latza "Mother Teresa's Secret Billions and a Vatican Seminary Rampant with Sex Abuse—a New Book Tells All", The Daily Beast, 11 November 2017 [https://www.thedailybeast.com/mother-teresas-secret-billions-and-a-vatican-seminary-rampant-with-sex-abusea-new-book-tells-all]</ref><ref>"l libro di Nuzzi: "Madre Teresa aveva un maxi-conto allo Ior", La Stampa, 9 November 2017, [http://www.lastampa.it/2017/11/09/italia/cronache/il-libro-di-nuzzi-madre-teresa-aveva-un-maxiconto-allo-ior-wMh47e34QERodkddonaRsM/pagina.html]</ref><ref>Curridori, Francesco "Madre Teresa aveva un maxi-conto allo Ior", il Giornale, 9 November 2017, [http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/nuzzi-madre-teresa-aveva-maxi-conto-ior-1461317.html]</ref>

== Motivation for charitable activities ==
Chatterjee stated that the public image of Mother Teresa as a "helper of the poor" was misleading, and that only a few hundred people are served by even the largest of the homes. In 1998, among the 200 charitable assistance organisations reported to operate in Calcutta, Missionaries of Charity was not ranked among the largest charity organisations – with the [[Assembly of God]] charity notably serving a greater number of the poor at 18,000 meals daily.<ref name="Stern-1998">{{cite news |last=Wüllenweber |first=Walter |url=http://www.members.aon.at/ueberbevoelkerung/MutterTeresa.PDF |title=Mutter Teresa – wo sind ihre Millionen? |language=de |trans-title=Mother Teresa – Where are her millions? |work=[[Stern (magazine)|Stern]] |publisher=Gruner + Jahr |date=10 September 1998 |page=214 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041113042040/http://www.members.aon.at/ueberbevoelkerung/MutterTeresa.PDF |archive-date=13 November 2004 |url-status=live |access-date=15 September 2016 |quote=Das Essen bekommt Samity jedoch nicht vom Order der Mutter Teresa sondern von der "Assembly of God", einer amerikanischen Hilfsorganisation, die hier täglich 18 000 Mahlzeiten ausgibt.}} - [http://www.fmh-child.org/Stern.htm translated source]</ref>

Chatterjee stated that many operations of the order engage in no charitable activity at all but instead use their funds for missionary work. He stated, for example, that none of the eight facilities that the Missionaries of Charity run in [[Papua New Guinea]] have any residents in them, being purely for the purpose of converting local people to Catholicism.{{fact|date=November 2019}}

She was sometimes accused by [[Hindus]] in her adopted country of trying to convert the poor to Catholicism by "stealth".<ref name="bbcday">{{Cite news|date=1997-09-05|title=1997: Mother Teresa dies|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/5/newsid_2499000/2499693.stm|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref> Christopher Hitchens described Mother Teresa's organisation as a [[cult]] that promoted suffering and did not help those in need. He said that Mother Teresa's own words on poverty proved that her intention was not to help people, while he quoted her words at a 1981 press conference in which she was asked: "Do you teach the poor to endure their lot?" She replied: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people."<ref name=hitchens1995 />

== Relationship to colonialism and racism ==

Australian feminist [[Germaine Greer]] called her a "religious imperialist" who preyed on the most vulnerable in the name of harvesting souls for [[Jesus]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/catholic-icon-teresa-both-adored-attacked-102808968.html|title=Catholic icon Teresa was both adored and attacked|website=www.yahoo.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-03}}</ref> In an essay in the collection ''White Women in Racialized Spaces'', historian [[Vijay Prashad]] said of Mother Teresa:
{{quote|Mother Teresa is the quintessential image of the white woman in the colonies, working to save the dark bodies from their own temptations and failures. [...] The Euro-American-dominated international media continue to harbor the colonial notion that [[white people]]s are somehow especially endowed with the capacity to create social change. When [[Person of color|nonwhite people]] labor in this direction, the media typically search for white benefactors or teachers, or else, for white people who stand in the wings to direct the nonwhite actors. Dark bodies cannot act of their own volition to stretch their own capacity, for they must wait, the media seem to imply, for some colonial administrator, some technocrat from IBM or the IMF to tell them how to do things. When it comes to saving the poor, the dark bodies are again invisible, for the media seem to celebrate only the worn out platitudes of such as Mother Teresa and ignore the struggles of those bodies for their own liberation. To open the life of someone like Mother Teresa to scrutiny, therefore, is always difficult. [...] Mother Teresa's work was part of a global enterprise for the alleviation of bourgeois guilt, rather than a genuine challenge to those forces that produce and maintain poverty.<ref name=Prashad1>{{cite book |author1-last=Prashad |author1-first=Vijay |author-link=Vijay Prashad |chapter=Mother Teresa as the Mirror of Bourgeois Guilt |title=White Women in Racialized Spaces: Imaginative Transformation and Ethical Action in Literature |editor1-last=Najmi |editor1-first=Samina |editor2-last=Srikanth |editor2-first=Rajini |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQ8icnIAgbEC&pg=PA67 |date=2012 |publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8808-9 |pages=67–68 |edition=illustrated |access-date=8 March 2015}}</ref>}}

== Posthumous criticisms ==
Mother Teresa died in 1997. Despite her request that all of her writings and correspondences be destroyed, a collection of them was posthumously released to the public in book form.<ref name=Come>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVaPAgAACAAJ&q=Mother+Teresa:+Come+Be+My+Light |title=Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta |date=4 September 2007 |editor=Kolodiejchuk, Brian |isbn=978-0-307-58923-1}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2016}} Her writings revealed that she struggled with feelings of disconnectedness,<ref name=VanBiema>{{cite news |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655720,00.html |author=Van Biema, David |title=Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith |work=Time |date=23 August 2007}}</ref> that were in contrast to the strong feelings which she had experienced as a young novice.<ref name=Reveals>{{cite web |url=http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2007/09/New-Book-Reveals-Mother-Teresas-Struggle-With-Faith.aspx |publisher=Beliefnet |title=New Book Reveals Mother Teresa's Struggle with Faith}}</ref> In her letters Mother Teresa describes a decades-long sense of feeling disconnected from God<ref name=Moore>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1561247/Mother-Teresas-40-year-faith-crisis.html |author=Moore, Malcolm |work=Telegraph |title=Mother Teresa's 40 year faith crisis |date=24 August 2007}}</ref> and lacking the earlier zeal that had characterised her efforts to start the [[Missionaries of Charity]]. As a result of this, she was judged by some to have "ceased to believe" and was posthumously criticised for [[hypocrisy]].<ref name=Mannion>{{cite news |url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/mother-teresa-of-calcuttas-dark-night-of-the-soul-2994/ |work=Catholic News Agency |title=Mother Teresa of Calcutta's Dark Night of the Soul |author=Mannion, Francis |date=18 September 2014}}</ref><ref name=Crisis>{{cite news |title=CNN iReport: 'Crisis of Faith: Mother Teresa's letters' |work=CNN |date=1 June 2009 |access-date=18 December 2015 |url=http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-265369 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222164009/http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-265369 |archive-date=22 December 2015 }}</ref>{{failed verification|date=May 2018}} Thomas C. Reeves suggests that this criticism displays a basic unfamiliarity with the concept of the "[[spiritual dryness|dark night of the soul]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title=MOTHER TERESA'S CRITICS UNDONE|url=https://www.catholicleague.org/mother-teresas-critics-undone/|last=Bill|website=Catholic League|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref>

"Holier than Thou", the May 23, 2005, episode of the [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]] programme ''[[Penn & Teller: Bullshit!]]'', criticised Mother Teresa, as well as [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and the [[14th Dalai Lama]]. Specifically, the episode pointed to Mother Teresa's relationships with [[Charles Keating]] and the [[Duvalier|Duvalier family]], as well as the quality of medical care in her home for the dying. [[Christopher Hitchens]] appears in the episode, offering accounts based on his reporting on her life.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Holier Than Thou |series=Penn & Teller: Bullshit! |number=5 |season=3 |date=23 May 2005 |network=Showtime |series-link=Penn & Teller: Bullshit!}}</ref> According to Navin B. Chawla, the Missionaries of Charity set up a small mission in [[Port-au-Prince]]. A day after Mother Teresa visited and left, Duvalier's daughter-in-law went to Mother Teresa's mission and donated 1,000 dollars, not one million as reported.<ref name=Chawla>Chawla, Navin B. (August 26, 2013). [http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-mother-teresa-her-critics-choose-to-ignore/article5058894.ece Chawla, Navin B., "The Mother Teresa her critics choose to ignore"]. ''The Hindu''.</ref>

In 2016, when she was canonised, [[Dan Savage]] drew attention to the conflicting evidence and accused [[NPR]] of describing alleged miracles in a way that favoured the church's interpretation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/08/31/24529972/npr-believes-in-miracles|title=NPR Believes in Miracles|first=Dan|last=Savage|publisher=The Stranger|date=2016-08-31|access-date=2018-03-23}}</ref>

In 2021, [[Michelle Goldberg]], an opinion columnist for ''[[The New York Times]]'' published a column suggesting that some of Mother Teresa's actions were those of a cult leader.<ref name ="nyt Goldberg 2021-05-21">{{Cite news|last=Goldberg|first=Michelle|date=2021-05-21|title=Opinion {{!}} Was Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?|language=en-US|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/opinion/mother-teresa.html|access-date=2021-05-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
,ref.
Nuns were made to self flagellate with a rope or chain.<ref>[https://nationalpost.com/holy-post/dark-times-with-nuns-of-mother-teresa-a-memoir Dark times with nuns of Mother Teresa]</ref>

== Responses to criticism ==
Melanie McDonagh believes that Mother Teresa is in large part "criticized for not being what she never set out to be, for not doing things which she never saw as her job." McDonagh stated "What she wasn't was a head of government. She didn't address the fundamental causes of poverty because she was addressing the symptoms and she did that well," nor were her sisters social workers. McDonagh commented, "She wasn't trying to do anything except treat people at the margins of society as if they were Christ himself."<ref>{{Cite web|author=McDonagh, Melanie|url=https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/09/mother-theresa-criticised-not-things-werent-job/|title=Why is Mother Teresa criticised for not doing things that weren't her job?|date=2016-09-04|website=Coffee House|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-10}}</ref>

Mari Marcel Thekaekara points out that after the [[Bangladesh War]], a few million refugees poured into Calcutta from the former [[East Pakistan]]. "No one had ever before done anything remotely like Mother Teresa's order, namely picking up destitute and dying people off the pavements and giving them a clean place to die in dignity."<ref>Thekaekara, Mari Marcel (14 September 2016). [https://newint.org/blog/2016/09/14/criticism-of-mother-teresa Thekaekara, Mari Marcel. "Reflections on the harsh criticism of Mother Teresa"]. ''The New Internationalist''.</ref>

Navin B. Chawla points out that Mother Teresa never intended to build hospitals, but to provide a place where those who had been refused admittance "could at least die being comforted and with some dignity." He also counters critics of Mother Teresa by stating that her periodic hospitalizations were instigated by staff members against her wishes and he disputes the claim that she conducted surreptitious baptisms. "Those who are quick to criticise Mother Teresa and her mission, are unable or unwilling to do anything to help with their own hands."<ref name=Chawla/>

According to Mark Woods, writing in ''Christian Today'', "And perhaps just as significant, in terms of her public perception, is the sense among Christians that her critics don't really understand what she was doing. So to criticise her for opposing abortion and contraception, for instance, is to criticise her for not running a secular charity, which she never pretended to do."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mother Teresa and her critics: Should she really be made a saint?|url=https://www.christiantoday.com/article/mother-teresa-and-her-critics-should-she-really-be-made-a-saint/94365.htm|last=BST|first=Mark Woods Wed 31 Aug 2016 14:40|website=www.christiantoday.com|language=en|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Prelest#Orthodox views on the lives of certain saints of the Roman Catholic Church|Prelest § Prelest and saints of the Roman Catholic Church]] (this is a general Eastern Orthodox critique of unhealthy psychology in some Catholic saints)

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* Doino, William Jr. "[http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics Mother Teresa and Her Critics]". ''First Things'' 2013.
* Prashad, Vijay. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20080724153535/http://www.cpa.org.au/amrarch/40vp.html Mother Teresa: A Communist View]". ''Australian Marxist Review'' 40 (1998); previously published in ''Political Affairs''.
* Warner, Sally. ''Mother Teresa: The Genius of Calcutta''. New Delhi: Pranoti, 2003. {{ISBN|9788190178105}}.

== External links ==
* Akande, Zainab. "[http://mic.com/articles/28746/mother-teresa-not-a-saint-new-study-suggests-she-was-a-fraud Mother Teresa Not a Saint: New Study Suggests She Was a Fraud]". ''Mic.com''. 2013.
* Dicker, Ron. "[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/mother-teresa-myth_n_2805697.html Mother Teresa Humanitarian Image A 'Myth,' New Study Says]". ''Huffington Post''. 4 March 2013.
* Hitchens, Christopher. "[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2003/10/mommie_dearest.html Mommie Dearest]". ''Slate''. October 2013.
* Taylor, Adam. "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/25/why-to-many-critics-mother-teresa-is-still-no-saint Why Mother Teresa is still no saint to many of her critics]". ''The Washington Post''. September 1, 2016
* Thomas, Prince Mathews. "[https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/10/forbes-india-mother-teresa-charity-critical-public-review.html Pointing Fingers At Mother Teresa's Heirs]". ''Forbes''. 10 August 2010.
* Varagur, Krithika "[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/krithika-varagur/mother-teresa-was-no-saint_b_9470988.html Mother Teresa Was No Saint]". ''Huffington Post''. Mar 18, 2016.

[[Category:Mother Teresa]]
[[Category:Catholicism-related controversies]]
[[Category:20th-century controversies]]
[[Category:Criticism of individuals|Teresa, Mother]]

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