Fr Paul Melwyn D'Souza

Mangaluru, Sep 4: On the evening of Sunday September 4, Pope Francis will declare blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata, a saint at the Vatican.

‘Saint’ is the highest honour bestowed by the Roman Catholic Church to a Catholic Christian so as to elevate him or her to the honours of the altar. The announcement of her imminent canonization to sainthood by Pope Francis has been met with celebration. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 'for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace'.

In 1980, she was honoured with India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. Mother Teresa was the first and only person to be featured on an Indian postage stamp while still alive. One can re-collect that full state funeral honours were accorded to her by the Government of India, an honour normally reserved for presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her service to the poor irrespective of religious affiliation in India. During her lifetime and after her death, Mother Teresa was consistently the single most widely admired person of the 20th century.

Mother Teresa who is affectionately called an 'Angel of Mercy' and a 'Saint of the Gutter' founded a congregation of the Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950. In her own words, the mission was to care for 'the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to society and are shunned by everyone'. Over the years, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity have been serving the 'poorest of the poor' in numerous centres in the world. They serve orphans, AIDS patients, refugees, the blind, the disabled, the aged, alcoholics, the poor, the homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine.

The former UN secretary-general Javier Perez de Cuellar, had said: “She is the United Nations. She is the peace in the world.”

Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan said that Mother Teresa was a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity.”

However, some critics of Mother Teresa have placed her work within the wider context of Christian missionary activities in India, which they oppose. Right wing or nationalistic Hindus oppose conversion and several attempts have been made to make conversion illegal in Indian states. Christians are often represented as agents of Western interests who plan to divide India by creating Christian majorities in the North Eastern states. Their claim is that large sums of money from the West help Christian agencies in India in this objective.

Sita Ram Goel writes, “The mischief created by Christian missionaries has to be seen to be believed. Mother Teresa is part of this gang, presenting India as a diseased and corrupt country and collecting fabulous sums for conversion.”

Arun Shourie was invited by the Catholic bishop’s conference to share his thoughts on how Hindus view Christians. In his view, Catholics claim to be committed to inter-religious dialogue while on the other it spends vast sums aimed at converting Hindus. He said that the main reason why Christians in India engage in social welfare and educational activities is for the purpose of conversion. They are not offered in a spirit of unconditional service but in order to gain converts, including the service done by Mother Teresa. Missionary work, he says, is not noble at all.

The head of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sparked outrage when he criticized the intentions of Mother Teresa who carried out the majority of her work and selfless service in India: “It is good to work for a cause with selfless intentions. But Mother Teresa’s work had ulterior motives, which was to convert the person who was being served to Christianity.” He further commented, “In the name of service, religious conversions were made. This was followed by other institutions, too.”

The most vocal critic of Mother Teresa was Christopher Hitchens, a British writer who along with the British Pakistani journalist Tariq Ali, produced a critical documentary on Mother Teresa titled 'Hell’s Angel'. Christopher Hitchens said that Mother Teresa was less interested in helping the poor than in using them as an indefatigable source of wretchedness on which to fuel the expansion of her fundamentalist Roman Catholic beliefs.

Whether or not one finds some of her sincere and genuine works and service distasteful, there is no doubt Mother Teresa did more than most of us to care for the world’s neediest and most neglected. Her canonization will certainly prompt us to re-examine, individually and collectively and to extend mercy, kindness and charity to those in need. Despite these criticisms and allegations, the life lived by blessed Mother Teresa is one of extraordinary holiness and worthy of veneration and imitation. A new saint Mother Teresa is a gift to all of us and her canonization invites reflection on how holiness manifests itself in particular times and places. She will be most remembered for her selfless service and for her life with the poorest of the poor that has inspired thousands around the globe. Saint Mother Teresa, pray for us.

(Fr Paul Melwyn D'Souza is Superior of St Anne's Friary, Mangaluru)