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Mother Teresa

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   Mother Teresa in 1985
   Enlarge
   Mother Teresa in 1985

   Mother Teresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu ( August 26, 1910 – September
   5, 1997), Bharat Ratna, OM, was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who
   founded the Missionaries of Charity in India. Her work among the
   poverty-stricken in Kolkata (Calcutta) made her one of the world's most
   famous people, and she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October
   2003. Hence, she may be properly called Blessed Teresa by Catholics.

   Born in Skopje, Ottoman Empire (located in modern-day Macedonia), at 18
   she left home to join the Sisters of Loretto. In 1962, she received the
   Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding. In 1971, she
   was awarded the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Teresa was also awarded
   the Templeton Prize in 1973, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and India's
   highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980. She was awarded the
   Legion d'Honneur from Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1981. She was presented
   with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, was made an Honorary
   Citizen of the United States (one of only two people to have this
   honour during their lifetime) in 1996, and received the Congressional
   Gold Medal in 1997. She was the first and only person to be featured on
   an Indian postage stamp while still alive.

   While her supporters sometimes referred to her as the "Angel of Mercy"
   and "Saint of the Gutter," critics have raised questions about her
   public statements, working practices, political connections, and the
   use of funds donated to her charity.

Early years in Skopje

   Gonxhe was born in the centre of Skopje on 27 August 1910 to Albanians
   Nikollë and Dranafille Bojaxhiu, both originally from Kosovo. She
   became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns when she was 17.

The Beginnings of the Missionaries of Charity

   In October, 1950 Teresa received Vatican permission to start a diocesan
   congregation, which would become the Missionaries of Charity, whose
   mission was to care for (in her own words) "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 the society and are shunned by everyone." It
   began as a small order with 12 members in Calcutta; today it has more
   than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, and charity centers
   worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged,
   alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and
   famine on all six continents.

   In 1952 the first Home for the Dying was opened in space made available
   by the City of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she
   converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the
   Dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed Kalighat, the Home of
   the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). She soon opened a home for those
   suffering Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called it
   Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). An orphanage followed. The order soon
   began to attract both recruits and charitable donations, and by the
   1960s had opened hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India.
   She was one of the first to establish homes for AIDS victims.

   Teresa's order started to rapidly grow, with new homes opening all over
   the globe. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela, and
   others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries
   in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania.

   By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become an international
   celebrity. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969
   documentary Something Beautiful for God which was filmed by Malcolm
   Muggeridge and his 1971 book of the same title, which is still in
   print. During the filming of the documentary, footage taken in poor
   lighting conditions, particularly the Home for the Dying, was thought
   unlikely to be of usable quality by the crew. After returning from
   India, however, the footage was found to be extremely well-lit.
   Muggeridge claimed this was a miracle of "divine light" from Mother
   Teresa herself. Others in the crew thought it more likely ascribable to
   a new type of Kodak film. Muggeridge later converted to Catholicism.
   President Ronald Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of
   Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985.
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   President Ronald Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of
   Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985.

   In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize.
   Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the
   Balzan prize (1978) for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples,
   the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States
   Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal
   (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States ( November 16, 1996),
   and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972 Mother
   Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international
   peace and understanding.

   In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work
   undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also
   constitute a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial
   banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $6,000 funds be diverted
   to the poor in Calcutta, claiming the money would permit her to feed
   hundreds of needy for a year. She is stated to have said that earthly
   rewards were important only if they helped her help the world’s needy.
   When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do
   to promote world peace?" Her answer was simple: "Go home and love your
   family." In the same year, she was also awarded the Balzan Prize for
   promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations.

   In 1982, Mother Teresa persuaded Israelis and Palestinians, who were in
   the midst of a skirmish, to cease fire long enough to rescue 37
   mentally handicapped patients from a besieged hospital in Beirut.

   When the walls of Eastern Europe collapsed, she expanded her efforts to
   communist countries that had rejected her, embarking on dozens of
   projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against
   abortion and divorce saying, "No matter who says what, you should
   accept it with a smile and do your own work."

   Mother Teresa travelled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation
   victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.

   In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her native region
   and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.

   By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.
   Over the years, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity grew from 12 to
   thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the
   world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was
   established in the South Bronx, New York.

Deteriorating health and death

   In 1983 Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome, while visiting Pope
   John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker.
   In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she had further
   heart problems.

   She offered to resign her position as head of the order. A secret
   ballot vote was carried out, and all the nuns, except herself, voted
   for Mother Teresa to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as
   head of the Missionaries of Charity.

   In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. Later that
   year, in August, she suffered from malaria, and failure of the left
   heart ventricle. She underwent heart surgery, but it was clear that her
   health was declining. On March 13, 1997 she stepped down from the head
   of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997, just 9 days
   after her 87th birthday.

   The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a
   priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa shortly before she died
   because he thought she was being attacked by a devil.

   At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had
   over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over
   100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These
   included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and
   tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs,
   orphanages, and schools.

   Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian
   Government, an honour normally given to presidents and prime ministers,
   in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India.
   Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and
   religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez
   de Cuéllar, for example, said: "She is the United Nations. She is 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 the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service
   to our humanity."

Influence in the World

   Mother Teresa at the inaguration of the Mother Theresa Womens
   University in Tamil Nadu with Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandrann and J&K
   Chief Minister Farook Abdullah
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   Mother Teresa at the inaguration of the Mother Theresa Womens
   University in Tamil Nadu with Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandrann and J&K
   Chief Minister Farook Abdullah

   Mother Teresa's work inspired other Catholics to affiliate themselves
   with her order. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in
   1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay
   Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother
   Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of
   Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother
   Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests. Today over
   one million workers worldwide volunteer for the Missionaries of
   Charity.

   During her lifetime and after her death, Mother Teresa was consistently
   found by Gallup to be the single most widely admired person, and in
   1999 was ranked as the "most admired person of the 20th century."
   Notably, Mother Teresa out-polled all other volunteered answers by a
   wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories
   except the very young.

Miracle and beatification

   Following Teresa's death in 1997, the Holy See began the process of
   beatification, the second step towards possible canonization, or
   sainthood. This process requires the documentation of a miracle
   performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. In 2002, the Vatican
   recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an
   Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket
   containing Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light
   emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor.

   The issue of the alleged miracle proved controversial in India around
   the time of Mother Teresa's beatification. Teresa was formally
   beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003 with the title
   Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. A second miracle is required for her to
   proceed to canonization.

   According to The Daily Telegraph, Besra's husband initially said that
   the tumor was cured by medical treatment. He is quoted as saying: "This
   miracle is a hoax. It is much ado about nothing. My wife was cured by
   the doctors." He later changed his mind, however, and told an
   interviewer: "It was her miracle healing that cured my wife. Our
   situation was terrible and we didn't know what to do. Now my children
   are being educated with the help of the nuns and I have been able to
   buy a small piece of land. Everything has changed for the better."
   According to Monica Besra in TIME Asia, records of her treatment were
   removed by a member of the order from the hospital and are now with a
   nun.

Controversy and critics

   Critics of Mother Teresa have argued that her organization provided
   substandard care, and were primarily interested in converting the dying
   to Catholicism. At the same time, Teresa received large sums in
   donations, the amount or destination of which has not been revealed.
   These donations are alleged to have been transferred to Catholic
   missionary programs elsewhere, rather than being spent on improving the
   standard of healthcare. Furthermore, Teresa's relationships with some
   donors and political figures has been a source of controversy. The
   Catholic Church has dismissed most of these criticisms.

Destination of donations

   Christopher Hitchens, a British journalist now living in Washington,
   D.C., described Mother Teresa's organization as a cult which promoted
   suffering and did not help those in need. Hitchens wrote that Mother
   Teresa's own words on poverty proved that "her intention was not to
   help people." He quoted Mother Teresa's words at a 1981 press
   conference in which she was asked: "Do you teach the poor to endure
   their lot?" She replied: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to
   accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the
   world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people."

   Hitchens further alleged that Mother Teresa lied to donors about what
   their contributions were to be used for. Donors were told that the
   money went to aid and the construction of healthcare facilities in
   India and elsewhere. Evidence points to it instead being spent largely
   on missionary work and that Mother Teresa was actually the controller
   of some of the funds. No hospitals were ever built. In 1994, Hitchens
   published an article in The Nation entitled "The Ghoul of Calcutta".

   Dr. Aroup Chatterjee, the author of "Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict"
   (2003), asserted that the public image of Mother Teresa as a helper of
   the poor, the sick, and the dying was misleading and overstated; the
   number of people who are served by even the largest of the homes is not
   nearly as large as westerners are led to believe.

   Hitchens, with British journalist Tariq Ali, co-produced a television
   documentary for the UK's Channel 4 called Hell's Angel, which was based
   on Aroup Chatterjee's work. Although he has never disputed the
   documentary's conclusions, Chatterjee criticized what he called the
   "sensationalist" approach of the film . The next year Hitchens
   published The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and
   Practice, which contained much of the same content, though with more
   references.

Criticism of care provided

   In 1991, Dr. Robin Fox, then editor of the British medical journal The
   Lancet, visited the Home for Dying Destitute in Calcutta and described
   the medical care the patients received as "haphazard". He observed that
   sisters and volunteers, some of whom had no medical knowledge, had to
   make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors in
   the hospice. Dr. Fox specifically held Teresa responsible for
   conditions in this home, and observed that her order did not
   distinguish between curable and incurable patients; people who could
   otherwise survive their ordeals would be at a heightened risk of dying
   from infections and lack of treatment.

   Fox conceded that the regimen he observed included cleanliness, the
   tending of wounds and sores, and kindness, but he noted that the
   sisters' approach to managing pain was "disturbingly lacking". The
   formulary at the facility Fox visited lacked strong analgesics which he
   felt clearly separated Mother Teresa's approach from the hospice
   movement. Fox also wrote that needles were rinsed with warm water,
   which left them inadequately sterilized, and the facility did not
   isolate patients with tuberculosis.

   Aroup Chatterjee alleged that many operations of the order engage in
   absolutely no charitable activity at all, but instead use their funds
   for missionary work. He stated, that none of the eight facilities that
   the Missionaries of Charity run in Papua New Guinea have residents
   living there; their sole use is converting people to Catholicism. In an
   open letter to Mother Teresa Chatterjee asked for clarification. In the
   letter, he quotes her as having given numbers of 57,000 helped at a
   single facility, 250,000 helped at another, thousands helped daily at
   another. He cast doubt upon these numbers.

   Chatterjee contends that families of the residents of its homes were
   not allowed to visit their loved ones and that, among India's
   charitable organizations, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity is
   the only one which refuses to release a public financial account.

   There have been a series of other reports documenting inattention to
   medical care in the order's facilities. Similar points of view have
   also been expressed by some former volunteers who worked for Teresa's
   order.

Attitude toward political leaders

   Mother Teresa made some public statements regarding political leaders
   that have produced controversy. After Indian Prime Minister Indira
   Gandhi's suspension of civil liberties in 1975, Mother Teresa said:
   "People are happier. There are more jobs. There are no strikes." These
   approving comments were seen as a result of the friendship between
   Teresa and the Congress Party. These comments were criticized even in
   Catholic media. (Chatterjee, p. 276). In 1981, she made a trip to Haiti
   to accept an honour from Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was notorious as a
   repressive kleptocrat, and praised the Duvalier family as friends of
   Haiti's poor. In 1989, she travelled to Albania and laid a wreath at
   the grave of Enver Hoxha, the nation's hard-line Stalinist leader
   throughout the Cold War era, who had outlawed religion and sometimes
   brutally repressed religious expressions, including those of the
   Catholic Church.

   Another example of Teresa apparently abandoning her convictions where
   the famous and powerful were involved concerns the subject of divorce.
   Hitchens wrote that in spite of her hostility to the practice, she
   nevertheless told the Ladies Home Journal that, with respect to the
   marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, "It is a good thing that
   it is over. Nobody was happy anyhow." The question of whether or not
   she personally felt that divorce for all should be allowed among
   Catholics was not raised, but rather was left for the Pope, in his role
   as Holy Father of the Catholic Church, to discern.

   The Tamil Nadu Government headed by the Late Dr.M.G.Ramachandran
   established a women's university in Kodaikanal named after Mother
   Teresa.

Baptisms of the dying

   Mother Teresa has garnered criticism for her encouragement of
   sacramental baptisms being performed on the dying (a majority of which
   were Hindus and Muslims), thus converting them to the Catholic faith.
   These were done without regard to the individuals' religion. In a
   speech at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, California in January, 1992,
   she said, "Something very beautiful... not one has died without
   receiving the special ticket for St. Peter, as we call it. We call
   baptism 'a ticket for St. Peter.' We ask the person, do you want a
   blessing by which your sins will be forgiven and you receive God? They
   have never refused. So 29,000 have died in that one house [in Kalighat]
   from the time we began in 1952."

The Catholic Church's response to criticism

   In the process of examining Teresa's suitability for beatification and
   canonization, the Roman Curia (the Vatican) pored over a great deal of
   documentation of published and unpublished criticisms against her life
   and work. Vatican officials say Hitchens' allegations have been
   investigated by the agency charged with such matters, the Congregation
   for the Causes of Saints, and they found no obstacle to Mother Teresa's
   canonization. Due to the attacks she has received, some Catholic
   writers have called her a sign of contradiction.

Commemoration

   Memorial plaque dedicated to Mother Teresa at a building in Václavské
   náměstí square in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
   Enlarge
   Memorial plaque dedicated to Mother Teresa at a building in Václavské
   náměstí square in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Memorial Museum of Mother Theresa

   A memorial room (museum) was opened in the Feudal Tower in Skopje, a
   building in which she used to play as a child. The museum has a
   significant selection of objects from Mother Theresa’s life in Skopje
   and relics from her later life. In the Memorial room there is a model
   of her family home, made by the artist Vojo Georgievski.

   Next to the Memorial room, there is an area with the image of Mother
   Theresa and her prayer as well as a memorial park and a fountain.

Memorial plaque where Mother Theresa’s home stood

   Just at the edge of Skopje’s city mall is the place where the house of
   Mother Theresa used to stand. The memorial plaque was dedicated in
   March of 1998 and it reads: “On this place was the house where Gondza
   Bojadziu - Mother Theresa - was born on 26 August 1910”. Her message to
   the world is also inscribed: “The world is not hungry for bread, but
   for love”

Mother Teresa Day in Albania

   Mother Teresa Day (Dita e Nënë Terezës) on October 19 is a public
   holiday in Albania.

Mother Teresa in Kosovo

   The main street in Kosovo`s capital Pristina is called Mother Theresa
   Street (Rruga Nëna Terezë)

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