Mother Teresa of Calcutta at one point became a world-famous celebrity. She had good relationships with many famous people – including the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, Princess Diana, and Pope John Paul II. As was often emphasized, such connections allowed the nun to help the poor even more.
A fanatic and a fraud?
During her beatification mass, John Paul II compared Mother Teresa to the “icon of the Good Samaritan”. However, that event already sparked heated discussions. According to the law of the Catholic Church, a person thanks to whom a miracle took place may be blessed. In this case, Monica Besra was supposed to be healed. The woman claimed that thanks to prayer to Mother Teresa, she got rid of a stomach tumor. Interestingly, however, according to her doctor, it was simply due to the medications she was taking.
Perhaps Mother Teresa’s greatest critic was Christopher Hitchens. The writer even called her “a fanatic, a fundamentalist and a fraud.” As he emphasized, it is not clear what the saint of the Catholic Church did with the money she received from many powerful people of this world. Teresa herself had a fortune of over $100 million.
What happened to the money collected?
Scientists from Canada started looking for the answer to this question. Serge Larivée, Genevieve Chénard and Carole Sénéchal found that only five percent of the amount raised went to caring for those in need. The rest was used to build, among other things, houses for missionaries. Importantly, some part of the amount was taken over by the Vatican.
After many years, Mother Teresa’s attitude towards those in need is also questionable. As we learn from numerous publications, the nun did not financially support those affected by numerous floods in India or after the factory explosion in Bhopal. Moreover, patients in her centers often did not receive painkillers. Reason? Mother Teresa claimed that the world benefits from suffering. Moreover, in her opinion, the pain of the poor resembled the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
