The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

I was a volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity at their "Gift of Peace" hospice in Washington, D.C. Christopher Hitchens's account of how places like this are run rings true with my own experience. For example, I was tending to an AIDS patient who had to go to the bathroom and I needed serious assistance. None was to be found because the sisters were at their prayers. It may strike some as strange that the nuns were attending to a god they cannot see while neglecting the poor man (who ended up leaving a quite visible souvenir of their neglect in his bed), but such are the lives of those who end up in such places. Hitchens does a great job of documenting in this thin book the dictators and flim-flam artists who used Mother Teresa's iconographic presence to lend a patina of divine approval to their nefarious deeds. That Mother's approach to misery was to counsel others, especially the poor who usually had no other choice, to offer it up, rather than seeking to eliminate or ameliorate it, comes through loud and clear. The most egregious hypocrisy: Mother's houses reject such creature comforts for the poor as air conditioning and elevators for the handicapped and, most telling of all, adequate pain medication. But Mother Teresa herself was treated at some of the finest medical facilities in the world. To take vows of poverty in imitation of Jesus is one thing; it is quite another to insist that those you purport to serve must share in your misery.This is an honest book. Some may conclude that it is derivative from the author's anti-religion bias. I very much doubt it. Rather, from the evidence amassed herin, as well as by such other scandels that the Church has (unsuccessfully, finally) tried to cover up, there may be some very good reasons for people to conclude that it is precisely when living vessels of clay are raised to altars around the world, it is a darn good time to check your wallet or pocketbook.

Christian theology teaches that everyone is imperfect and tainted by Original Sin. All human beings are tempted by the sin of pride and other vices. Why should Mother Theresa be any different? There are indeed serious questions that were never adequately answered regarding the large sums of money at her disposal. Were they spent according to the wishes of the donors, or was much of it siphoned off to other endeavors that had little to do with assisting the hopelessly downtrodden? Did these unfortunates truly receive the best medical care possible? Is there any truth to the allegations that many of these patients were denied pain killers to supposedly prepare them spiritually for life everlasting? Why didn't Mother Theresa comprehend the cold fact that dictators and convicted criminals were giving her money stolen from other people? Would trained certified public accountants have found many abuses and squandering of funds? Alas, often even well meaning people unwittingly waste the resources under their direct responsibility. A good heart alone is not enough when managing a large organization. It is intellectual dishonest to ignore "The Missionary Position." Christopher Hitchens is an avowed atheist, but this shouldn't be held against him. The author's rhetoric is admittedly a bit too aggressive and borders on the abusive. Nonetheless, Hitchens has presented some strong evidence that tarnishes the hagiographic memory of the often described Saint of Calcutta. The man deserves a point by point careful rebuke and not argumentum ad hominem attacks. This relatively short book earns a place among all the other works on Mother Theresa....

I have always thought very highly of Mother Theresa, until a few years ago, when I visited one of her clinics on a medical trip. It was a nursery, filled to the brim with pathetic crying babies, or those too scrawny and weak to even move. Many of them lay in urine soaked beds. I started to cry at the sight of their misery, it was just so appalling, and mind you, this is not the first time I have seen sick babies or dire poverty.But what was most shocking was when one of the doctors in my group asked where the money had gone. She apparently had been here last year, and she and others raised $25,000 for this particular nursery--they had sent the money a few months before we arrived to buy cribs, diapers, formula and medicine. The nursery was exactly the same now as it had been a year ago.The sister in charge said something to the effect that they had to give the money to the main MC office--or something like that. They never saw a penny of it. One of the babies died during our visit--of starvation. He could have been saved very easily.My doubts began at that time, and I read more about Mother Theresa, how her nuns were spreading AIDS and hepatitis by using unclean needles in their clinics. You can buy bleach to sterilize needles for just a few pennies, but yet, they didn't even have that. Where then, does the millions go that is donated to this woman and her charity?If she believes that suffering is so holy, then one would think she would have wanted to be treated when she got sick, the same way that the poor are treated. But instead, Mother Theresa got top notch care. I guess when one is on the fast track to sainthood, they don't have to do their penance and suffering like the rest of us.I don't think that she was an evil woman, and maybe she meant to do well at one time. But keeping medical care and food away from the hungry and sick is a crime. She became known for caring for the dying because that's what people did best in her clinic--die. True, many of them lived on the street, and she did offer than food and shelter. However, why allow someone to die when you have the means to save them?I would like to know where all of the money that Mother Theresa got in donations has gone to. If she is a true Christian, she would have returned the donation made by Keating back to its rightful owners, the people he stole it from. But she didn't. She never even acknowledged it, only pleaded for clemency for the criminal who robbed 17,000 people of their life savings. One truly has to wonder about the "Christian" mind of such a person.At any rate, my personal experience has convinced me that Hitchens is on to something. The sisters were basically doing nothing for these babies, not even holding them. Not even changing the worn cloth diapers that they wore. It was totally disgusting. Just waiting for them to die, what Mother Theresa does best.

In swift and sly prose, Hitchens relates his personal observations of Mother Teresa's clinics in Calcutta. He tells one story of a nursery full of starving, sick babies crying in insufficient cribs, which M. Teresa describes as the way "we fight abortion." He writes of men dying of AIDS, denied pain medicine, because according to M. Teresa, their suffering will assure them of ultimate salvation. Paitients too weak to object are baptized in their final hours.I have now doubt that all of this is true, and at first glance it is surprising, but it shouldn't be. M. Teresa is a Roman Catholic nun and Mother Superior; in fact, founder of an order. She is not merely Christian in a vague way, but a zealot for Catholicism. I knew this-- in fact I even knew that at one point, all she allowed her nuns was an impoverished diet of rice, and insufficient calories of that, because she thought they should the same thing as the people they served. This was not necessary, as her order had plenty of money. She began feeding her nuns a living diet only after the Pope ordered her to do so.I suppose as a Catholic nun and zealot, she's did a fine job, but I don't think most Americans, especially non-Catholic Americans, knew this. Every year, millions of dollars are donated to her order, most of which sits in banks, while patients in her hospitals suffer from insufficient care. Some of this money comes from non-Catholic Americans who know next to nothing about M. Teresa and her actual mission. All people know is some vague idea that there's a lot of hunger and inadequate medical care in Calcutta, and M. Teresa order is doing something out there to help.Christopher Hitchens lets people know exactly what she did; anyone who reads this book will never blindly donate money on the assumption that since there's poverty in Calcutta, any money sent to charity workers there must be doing some good.More than exposing her clinics, Hitchens shows the disingenuous way M. Teresa has presented herself to the world. There is here in the book reprinted a very quaintly written letter on behalf of Charles Keating(!) reprinted here, yet plenty examples of her savvy that belie the innocent charm of her letter.Hitchens does not hide his distaste for his subject, and while it is easy to accuse him of less than objectivity, he does stick to the facts; he just reports them with biting, venomous words. If you are a fan of M. Teresa, this book will offend you. If you seek the truth about her, you must read this book. If you have always harbored doubts about her, but never had any real evidence, this book will be a great relief, as your gut feeling is confirmed.