# Mother Teresa - Saint or Scourge? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 18, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792 "2015-12-18T18:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/101 "2015-12-21T05:14:22Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Hitchens and others have expressed savage hatred of Mother Teresa for allegedly not using donations in a way that wasn’t very effective at helping the poor. Did Hitchens, or any other hater, ever express half as much hatred for the socialist government that made hundreds of millions of Indians dirt poor and wretched in the first place? Yeah, yeah-Hitchens bad mans. I think we all get your point by now. How about citing where he got his facts wrong? ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/102 "2015-12-21T09:32:25Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > but 2014 India it was reported that 600m Indians had essentially no access to medical care at all. Lack of access to medical care is the number one reason, in estimates I’ve seen, that have Indian life expectancy lacking Western levels. > [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Indian government that has left 600m people without access to medical care. I’ll have to ask for a cite for these claims since you use it so repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/103 "2015-12-21T16:12:06Z")
[Mother Teresa Sent To Hell In Wacky Afterlife Mix-Up.](http://www.theonion.com/article/mother-teresa-sent-to-hell-in-wacky-afterlife-mix--973) ---
**Author:** ![lalaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@lalaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalaith)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/104 "2015-12-22T04:47:44Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > [Now the Catholic Church announces she will be declared a saint. Are they ignoring the evidence that this woman was creating poverty and suffering in Calcutta? Do they not care because she promoted the cause of Catholicism? Or do you think these are all fabrications about a woman who should be considered a saint? Sometimes saints have done what ought to be thought of as indisputably horrible things. Saint Thomas More had people burned people alive for heresy. And that including having/reading the Bible. Saint Pope John Paul II turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the sexual molestation of children and let priests stay in positions where they could continue to molest children. Yes, I heard about Mother Teresa, pregnancy and not supporting contraception back when she was alive. Probably if she’d supported contraception, she wouldn’t be considered for sainthood as it breaks doctrine. As I said in my piece, [URL=“[http://maggieameanderings.com/2014-Jul-13.htm"]"Why](http://maggieameanderings.com/2014-Jul-13.htm%22%5D%22Why) I’m More Moral Than God,”]([MSN](http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/to-many-critics-mother-teresa-is-no-saint/ar-BBnHwu3?li=BBnbfcL)) “But sainthood is less about being truly moral and more hinged upon miracles…Yet according to the Bible the spirits of devils can perform miracles, so miracles seem a poor criteria for sainthood to me.” Yes, I was being somewhat facetious in the piece, but I do think sainthood ought to have more to do with how you lived your life and less to do with supposed miracles attributed to you after death. And your life is a sum total of the good _ **and** _ the harm you did. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/105 "2015-12-22T14:15:05Z")
Dr. Schweitzer came in for the same kind of criticism…but the fact is, he actually did some good! True, his clinic wasn’t the best, but something is infinitely better than nothing. Did Hitchens ever comfort a dying street bum? As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, it is better to light a single candle than spend all day cursing the dark. QED. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/106 "2015-12-22T14:22:03Z")
Well this has been interesting. It leaves me with the same problem, a scarcity of facts, and an uneasy feeling about a subject that has only been examined from opposite extreme points of view. What bothers me the most is that the criticism is generally shouted down without factual counter. The response will be all about good intentions, but no demonstration of results. On the flip side of that the task of serving the poor in Calcutta is like standing in the surf to stop the waves, how much success could anyone have? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/107 "2015-12-22T15:41:00Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > Did Hitchens ever comfort a dying street bum? > QED. I’m not sure what your point is. What must a persons credentials be before they can criticise an individual? Are yours strong enough to have a pop at Hitchens? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/108 "2015-12-22T15:48:56Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I’m not sure what your point is. What must a persons credentials be before they can criticise an individual? Are yours strong enough to have a pop at Hitchens? Thank you-I was just about to make the same point. Must one be a nun that has worked with the poor in Calcutta to criticize Mother Teresa in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792/109 "2015-12-22T17:31:47Z")
If anyone finds it interesting, Hitchens debated Bill Donohue and Theresa came up [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mEJutoL58&feature=youtu.be&t=1713), though Donohue’s rebuttal (at least at first) is a counterattack on Hitchens and not a defense of Theresa. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mother-teresa-saint-or-scourge/740792.md?page=5)