The Dark Side of Mother Theresa

Forget Star Wars; if you’re interested in an incredible tale of Sci-fi fantasy just listen to the story of Mother Theresa. In 1969, British journalist Malcom Muggeridge travelled to India to make a film for the BBC about Calcutta’s House of the Dying, run by an Albanian Nun called Mother Theresa. Muggeridge, a devout Catholic, was awestruck by Mother and in reviewing his footage he proclaimed that a "divine light" could clearly be seen surrounding her.

 His cameramen suggested that the source of this “divine light” was perhaps the new brand of Kodak film they were using, specially created for low light conditions. Muggeridge however, felt that explanation sounded stupid, and that clearly the BBC had filmed a miracle. And so, thanks to Kodak and one British idiot; the myth of Mother Theresa was born.

It was Muggeridge’s propaganda film that sparked the worldwide fascination with Mother Theresa and fabricated her reputation as a friend of the poor, champion of world peace and the ultimate symbol of unselfish devotion. The ugly truth however about Mother is that she was an evil, horrible human being; the exact opposite of what Muggeridge touted her to be.

                                

Mother Theresa, whose real name was Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was no friend of the sick. Her House of the Dying is just that; a house where people are left to die. Usually in pain and suffering. Despite receiving millions of dollars, Mother Theresa’s hospice is a squalid place, which doesn’t provide even basic medical care, not bothering with such trivial things as medicine, fluids or sterilized needles.

In 1981, when challenged on this fact as well as the fact that people suffering from curable diseases were simply left to die in her hospice, Mother responded by saying, "There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering." Not even Darth Vader ever said anything as insanely evil as that.

Far from helping the sick, what Mother really loved, was proselyting. She boasted of having opened 500 convents outside of India. No doubt with the money she received from people who gave it thinking it was going to the hospice. As Mother might have said, “Blessed are the Suckers.”  

Mother’s extreme indifference to the poor was only matched by her extreme love of the rich. Especially if they also happened to be brutal dictators or fraudsters. In 1981, Mother accepted Haiti’s highest award, the Legion d’Honneur, praising the psychotic Baby Doc as “loving the poor and being loved by the poor in return”. Which was probably news both to Haiti’s poor, and Baby Doc alike.

In 1990, Mother laid a wreath on the grave of Ever Hoxha, the Stalinist ruler who had massacred thousands of her fellow Albanians, but who apparently she had a soft spot for. But it was her dealings with the swindler Charles Keating that is perhaps Mother’s most shameful association. 

Charles Keating was the Bernie Madoff of his day. In the early 1990’s the company he headed, Lincoln Savings and Loans, went belly up and thousands of ordinary depositors lost all their savings. Keating was indicted on charges of fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy. He had also given Mother Theresa over a million dollars as well use of a private jet. This was able to buy Keating a personal plea from Mother Theresa herself during his trial, asking the judge for leniency. When US prosecutors suggested Mother return the stolen money Keating gave her, she never responded. And perhaps covered her ears saying, “la la la can’t hear you”.

When she wasn’t ignoring the dying or receiving cash from autocrats and con artists, Mother was spreading the message of right wing Christian fundamentalism. She was a harsh critic of abortion, contraception and divorce, and admonished all practitioners of them. Unless of course they happened to be her friends. When Princess Diana got divorced, Mother said, “You know what? It is good that it is over. Nobody was happy.” Mother could condemn the sins of the poor to eternal hell fire but never those of the rich and the powerful.

None of this has dampened the fervor of cult worship afforded to Mother Theresa.  In fact, Pope Francis has recently announced that she is to be made a saint next year on the account of supposedly being responsible for two miracles. It would matter not to Mother’s faithful that there is no evidence for this. For her fans, Mother’s myth is simply too comforting to question. And for the Vatican, even in death Mother remains their biggest box office hit. Expect the tales of her fantastic adventures to continue.