Monday, September 05, 2016

The Pope has declared Mother Teresa a saint. Here is why she is undeserving of any kind of honor.

Courtesy of MSN: 

Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society's most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created." 

Francis held up Mother Teresa as the model for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls during a canonization Mass that drew an estimated 120,000 people — rich and poor, powerful and homeless — to a sun-filled St. Peter's Square. 

"Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer," Francis said in his homily. 

The canonization was the highlight of Francis' Holy Year of Mercy and may come to define his papacy, which has been dedicated to ministering to society's most marginal, from prisoners to prostitutes, the refugees and the homeless.

Yes well if that is what he was hoping for, this is a swing and a miss.

Two years ago there was a research paper published which explained why that is: 

‘The sick must suffer like Christ on the cross’ 

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa had opened 517 missions welcoming the poor and sick in more than 100 countries. The missions have been described as “homes for the dying” by doctors visiting several of these establishments in Calcutta. Two-thirds of the people coming to these missions hoped to a find a doctor to treat them, while the other third lay dying without receiving appropriate care. The doctors observed a significant lack of hygiene, even unfit conditions, as well as a shortage of actual care, inadequate food, and no painkillers. The problem is not a lack of money—the Foundation created by Mother Teresa has raised hundreds of millions of dollars—but rather a particular conception of suffering and death: “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,” was her reply to criticism, cites the journalist Christopher Hitchens. Nevertheless, when Mother Teresa required palliative care, she received it in a modern American hospital. 

Mother Teresa’s questionable politics and shadowy accounting 

Mother Teresa was generous with her prayers but rather miserly with her foundation’s millions when it came to humanity’s suffering. During numerous floods in India or following the explosion of a pesticide plant in Bhopal, she offered numerous prayers and medallions of the Virgin Mary but no direct or monetary aid. On the other hand, she had no qualms about accepting the Legion of Honour and a grant from the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Millions of dollars were transferred to the MCO’s various bank accounts, but most of the accounts were kept secret, Larivée says. “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Theresa’s works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?”

In short Mother Teresa was a penny pinching fame whore who believed that the poor grew closer to God in their suffering and yet sought out the best medical attention available when she herself became ill.

She was one of the worst hypocrites on the planet, and made millions of dollars off of the suffering of others while doing virtually nothing to ease their pain or cure their ills.

To learn more simply watch this documentary by the brilliant Christopher Hitchens who may have been one of the first to see through this charlatan's act.

50 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:08 AM

    Two individuals who should never be called Saints.. Mother Theresa and Sarah Palin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:36 AM

      Ronald Reagan, also too.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:52 AM

      Sarah would never call herself a saint and would tel people who think she is one to stop calling her that. Though to my knowledge, I doubt anyone on earth considers anyone else a saint. We're all sinners and sin every day.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5:53 AM

      And where do you see Sarah or Reagan saying they are saints? Focus. this is about Mother Teresa.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous6:09 AM

      5:52
      Couldn't agree with you more. Sarah "would never call herself a saint." No siree, Bob. She'd get it all mixed up with "haints" which are Halloween ghouls in the South.
      I though Pastor Murfee from Afreeca exorcised those in her funky church so she could walk through that door God opened for the VP slot. (Oh. Boink.)

      We are not all sinners nor do we sin every day. Some of us do not believe in fairy in the sky shit.
      Now, the Palin tribe, on the other hand.....

      Delete
    5. Anonymous7:09 AM

      Oh c'mon, 5:53 AM, pay attention. RWNJs and Palin herself have been calling Reagan a saint for years, Try to keep up.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous7:43 AM

      I thought Sarah was God. She is not about to lower herself to saint.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous9:35 AM

      5:52 Define sin without bringing religion into it.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:08 AM

      We're all sinners and sin every day.
      --------
      That may be the humble christian thing to say, but it's not true. A "sin" is subjective.

      Also, I would never hurt another soul, steal, murder etc. But most of the religious people I know have no problem with the little sins, all is forgiven at confession, right? I and many non religious folks have a conscience, not a rule book.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous7:28 PM

      noun: sin; plural noun: sins

      1. an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. "a sin in the eyes of God"

      synonyms: immoral act, wrong, wrongdoing, act of evil/wickedness, transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, misdemeanor; More, archaic trespass; "a sin in the eyes of God," wickedness, wrongdoing, wrong, evil, evildoing, sinfulness, immorality, iniquity, vice, crime "the human capacity for sin"

      antonyms: virtue, an act regarded as a serious or regrettable fault, offense, or omission. "he committed the unforgivable sin of refusing to give interviews"

      synonyms: scandal, crime, disgrace, outrage, "they've cut the school music program—it's a sin"

      verb: sin; 3rd person present: sins; past tense: sinned; past participle: sinned; gerund or present participle: sinning

      1. commit a sin. "I sinned and brought shame down on us"

      synonyms: commit a sin, commit an offense, transgress, do wrong, commit a crime, break the law, misbehave, go astray; archaic trespass. "I have sinned"
      ------
      IMO, sin is best described by those sinned against. Period.

      dowl

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:18 AM

    Thank you for refreshing my memory about Mother Theresa. I also remember reading somewhere how she treated unwed mothers. She truly was not really the very compassionate person people think she was.

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  3. Thanks for this. I've read about her meanness before, and was appalled to learn of her sainthood. One more dirty plank in the disgusting pile of hypocrisy religion has built. Its phony piety knows no bounds.

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  4. Anonymous4:56 AM

    There are plenty of other nuns in this world who have stood up against the church for human rights. Mother Theresa was not one of them. The church rushed through her phony canonization as a lure to draw people closer to the church and make more money. In the end, it's always about control and money.

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    1. Anonymous6:38 AM

      It reminds me of the military and giving a Medal of Honor to Sarah's undeserving son in law.

      These institutions have lost all honor. Their rewards are crap. Now it just means the recipients are big grifters and cons.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:01 AM

    What does it matter? Saints aren't what they used to be. No one cares anymore, anyway. Least of all atheist me.

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    1. Anonymous5:55 AM

      Considering a Christian by belief system is someone who accepts that they are flawed sinners and believes people are allowed grace to be forgiven. That everyone is capable of being better wth every passing day.

      A Saint is someone who is wholly virtuous, which contradicts what a Christian believes.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:39 AM

    the business side of religion is nausea inducing.

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  7. Anonymous5:41 AM

    Mother Teresa is somewhere saying, "Damn, it is hot in here!"

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:56 AM

      True, she is with everyone else in the world who's died.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:30 PM

      With Phyllis Schaefly?

      dowl

      Delete
  8. Anonymous5:49 AM

    She let them suffer while she enriched herself and was treated with the best modern medicine $ could buy. Catholics are a strange lot. Think of The Church in ancient times and the reasons our ancestors fled Europe.

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  9. Theresa. New York6:10 AM

    Agree, But, her name is spelled without the "H". Please correct this. To those of us with Theresa as a name it is galling. Theresa is the name of a French saint also known as The Little Flower. Teresa? That's another story.

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  10. Anonymous6:51 AM

    Dr. Baldwin's role is a very valid point.
    And to the people who killed Dar Miller...wait until you see what you have comin!

    "Where do they go when they die?
    They don';t go to heaven where the angels fly,
    They go to a lake where they fire and fry,
    Won't see them again 'til the Fourth of July."

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:53 AM

    As an atheist, I have been surprisingly rather fond of this pope, but I was really disappointed to hear the this travesty had been performed. Maybe the ball was already rolling when he got there and he had to see it to it through to the end. Or maybe religion is just fucked up. Yeah, that.

    Not surprisingly, this is the first mention I've seen that 'Mother' Teresa was the horrid little witch that she was though it's been known for years. Cowards...

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  12. Anonymous7:03 AM

    She was one of the worst hypocrites on the planet, and made millions of dollars off of the suffering of others while doing virtually nothing to ease their pain or cure their ills.


    Where did her money go? Back to church and they make her a saint?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:24 AM

      You got it...all her wealth would have been funneled back to the Catholic Church..to purchase more gold leaf or million dollars paintings, or just to sit in the Vatican vaults where no taxes are paid. Nice scam.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:58 AM

      It sounds like she purchased her new title. Sweet deal.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous7:17 AM

    To have the financial and technological means to alleviate suffering, and intentionally deny it because you get a thrill out of watching people live and die in misery is simply unconscionable.

    The Jesus they believe in would be horrified.

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  14. Anonymous7:39 AM

    The devil got a new bride the day she died.

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  15. Anonymous7:43 AM

    She was nothing more than a psychopath, she enjoyed watching people suffer and did nothing to alleviate it.
    For the rcc to canonized her in the face of all the facts, not some made up cure, means that not one of the hierarchy believe their own tenets. She should have been jailed for what she did.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:48 AM

      Yep. And she's only been made a saint because of 1) public pressure (she fooled so many people) and 2) a need for the church to do something big to keep Catholics feeling excited and interested about their church in this modern era of the realization that religion is idiocy.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous7:57 AM

    The Meaning of Life
    https://www.facebook.com/SgtDakotaMeyer/posts/1245280228845149

    There's so much more to this than the obvious
    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ucgU2DJlBiw/maxresdefault.jpg

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  17. Anonymous8:01 AM

    She was a horrid person that got off watching people die in pain.

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  18. Anonymous8:09 AM

    My vote would have been to the Nuns On The Bus. Most everyone else involved in religious "helping and healing" are in it for the big $.

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  19. A. J. Billings8:55 AM

    Allowing people to suffer because they are "poor" is an absurdity.

    Thinking that suffering is somehow noble or makes you more spiritual or holy is another large crock of shite.

    If Teresa indeed had millions on hand and let people lie in agony, heat, and lack of comfort that would not surprise me in the least.

    Religions are based on constructs of the mind, and are by definition purely subjective, and not based in objective reality, facts, or evidence.

    Speaking (as others here have ) of the Vatican, they are sitting on hundreds of thousands of literally priceless artifacts from antiquity that could provide food, shelter, health care and education for the underprivileged of this planet.

    That doesn't even take into account the incredible amount of real estate the Catholic church owns world wide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:52 PM

      The pseudo-christiany domionist theocrats conveniently 'overlook' the poor because NT scripture states that 'the poor will always be among us.'

      The 'OT Christians' ignore Deut. 15:11

      The self-identified 'christiany' like to quote John 12:8 and Matthew 26:11; all scripture is quoted without regard to time, place, and culture.

      The spiritual values for personal enrichment and growth is generally always disregarded.

      The dominionist theocrats are 'following' their own misguided interpretation of the red words of New Testament and the Old Testament for control of those who may genuinely seek God, IMO.

      dowl

      Delete
  20. Anonymous9:17 AM

    Christopher Hitchens has a book about Teresa titled
    The Missionary Position.
    Great Read.
    Thanks for this piece.

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  21. Crystal Sage9:19 AM

    I have read Hitchens's "Missionary Position" and watched the documentary. Mother Teresa has flatly stated that she was against abortion and CONTRACEPTIVES, thus she was able to keep a steady supply of suffering people who gave her ministry its fame and glory. She ran warehouses for the poor and suffering while she basked in attention, raking in millions of dollars that did nothing to end the reasons for the suffering, most of all, the lack of safe and reasonable birth control for the poor.

    She was a monster who created a myth for herself while others suffered needlessly. Her elevation to sainthood is a scam and a disgrace.

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  22. Anonymous9:45 AM

    As always, religion is about POWER, MONEY and SEX.

    She raised millions of $$$ for those in power in the RCC. Where is it? Was it used to alleviate suffering in the world? Or just stored away in the vatican vaults? If those vaults were opened and the riches distributed, there would be soooo much less suffering in the world. Maybe they could buy birth control for the huddled masses of women cranking out kids yearly in situations where those fetuses are apt to be dead before age 5.

    Hypocrisy at it finest.

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  23. Anonymous10:02 AM

    Pope John Paul II started the saint process for her. Teresa herself questioned whether there was a god, not sure about the Jesus part for her last fifty years, but her personal letters exist and in them she creates an atheistic bent for herself. Her "miracles" were total nonsense. Her sainthood is right up there with the pedophiles that people the catholic church. Poppy rot I say.

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  24. Anonymous10:20 AM

    I read a book about the church here in Alaska. The missionaries would stroke the young girls in the missions vaginas as it helped them calm down. The little girls that is. That was the excuse used. I am not surprised about this so called mother Teresa. Humans have used guilt and religion for centuries, and they throw that sin card at you too. It's an ongoing story. Sorry to hear this so Saint was just an old crone who projected to people that she was saintly. People are always looking to worship something. We are just a worshipping sonsabitches aren't we? I read in one of your side blogs about how they found a potato up in Canada with a cross inside, and are going to dry it then let people come see and worship. It don't get any more ridiculous than that aye?

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  25. Anonymous10:46 AM

    Gryphen has nailed it.

    Theresa was actually quite perverse, and no way is she a saint--not that I believe in such a thing, but she certainly is not deserving of being seen as such.

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  26. Anonymous11:19 AM

    That is the model for the Catholic Church.

    Amass obscene amounts of money, land and artifacts and then pray for people in return.

    Mother Teresa wasn't made a saint for anything she did other than being a good Catholic. It was a publicity stunt to give their believers what they wanted. The Pope gets a feather in his cap, the followers get a new saint, the church makes more money and the roof over the dying poor people is now named after a saint. Like they care.

    I guess worshipping invisible former people isn't the same as idolatry. Oh, that's right. They have all these statues and medals of Mary and all these other people they worship. So I guess, Catholicism does practice idolatry.

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  27. Anonymous12:07 PM

    Do they pass the offering plate among those thousands that turn out for events at the Vatican? Certainly should miss that opportunity.

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  28. Anonymous12:26 PM

    R'amen, Gryphen.

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  29. "A lying thieving Albanian dwarf" was Christopher Hitchens' description.

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  30. Anonymous4:37 PM

    Nuns do most of the heavy lifting in the church with little or no credit. Why didn't sainthood go to one more deserving? I don't think Frank is that naive. Suffering brings you closer to God? In what respect, Agnes????? Watching the suffering and death and doing nothing is a sin.

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  31. Anonymous10:01 PM

    Hey Gryphen or Griffen, you're not worth the scum on that late woman's shoe you sick asshole! All you do is spew hate and bigotry against people who are not Liberal Fascists like you while she dedicated her life helping the poor and the sick. May you drop dead!

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  32. Anonymous10:50 PM

    @10:01 that was very Christian of you. Jeebus would be so pleased. mermaid Michele

    ReplyDelete

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