Pope Francis recognises second Mother Teresa 'miracle'
Source: BBC
Pope Francis recognises second Mother Teresa 'miracle'
2 hours ago
From the section India
Pope Francis has recognised a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for the Roman Catholic nun to be made a saint next year.
The miracle involved the inexplicable healing of a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumours, a report in the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian Catholic Bishop's Conference said.
(snip)
Beatification requires one miracle by the Catholic Church, while the process of becoming recognised as a saint requires proof of at least two miracles.
Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 after Pope John Paul II accepted as authentic a miracle attributed to her.
(snip)
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35129463
Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)It must have been caused by Mother Teresa. Logical conclusion.
Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)to have been in answer to prayers to Christ or a specific saint, or contact with a holy relic of a saint, then it is absolutely irrational to to reject "inference to the best (as in, 'only') explanation".
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)Magical childish thinking.
Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,870 posts)That woman saved the lives of thousands of the poorest of the poor in India. She pulled the sick and dying off the streets so they would have a decent place to die.
I don't think making fun of her is appropriate. She is already regarded as a saint by millions. If the Church wants to recognize her incredible service to those in need then that's fine with me.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Because suffering brought them closer to Christ. Saintly? Perhaps, but not a decent human being.
Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)SO?
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Uploaded on Nov 4, 2006
Mother Teresa and her organization provided substandard care for patients, 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 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 have been a source of controversy. Yet still many Christians claim her to be a saint.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Hitchens exposed her (and of course was vilified for doing so) in a Vanity Fair article. The frothing at the mouth from Catholics in response was wonderous to behold.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Mommy Theresa was just following the tradition.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)a couple of months ago when her charity decided to shutdown 13 of its orphanages just in case of single people, who might turn out to be gay, and who can't give "real love" to children decide to adopt. http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uncucumbered/mother_theresa_s_charity_shuts_down_adoptions_rather_than_allow_gays_to_adopt?recruiter_id=17
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)"A decent place to die?" People died on crusty, diseased sheets because she wouldn't allow anyone to buy a washing machine. She fetishized suffering and dirty sheets were suffering and hand washing them was even more suffering (and not terribly effective,) so a hundred year old technology? Not allowed.
A lot of those people might have LIVED had she taken any of the millions of dollars she took in and invested them in rudimentary medical care.
When she was sick she didn't get a dirty sheet on a cot and some prayers, she got a private plane to the finest western doctors. Suffering only enriches the souls of other people, I guess.
niyad
(113,573 posts)JI7
(89,271 posts)Done a lot more in saving people
niyad
(113,573 posts). . .
Teresa was a friend to vicious dictators, criminals and con men. As Christopher Hitchens documents in his book The Missionary Position, Teresa was acquainted with a startling number of unsavory characters. Two such were the Duvaliers, Jean-Claude and Michelle, who ruled Haiti as a police state from 1971 until they were overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986. (They looted the country of most of its national treasury when they fled.) Teresa visited them in person in 1981 and praised the Duvaliers and their regime as friends of the poor, and her testimony on their behalf was shown on state-owned television for weeks. Bizarrely, she also visited the grave of brutal Communist dictator Enver Hoxha in 1990, laying a wreath of flowers on the tomb of a man who had viciously suppressed religion in Teresas native Albania. The list also includes the Nicaraguan contras, a Catholic terrorist group who unleashed death squads on the civilian population in their bid to conquer the country.
Teresa was also a friend to Charles Keating, a conservative Catholic fundamentalist who served on an anti-pornography commission under President Nixon. Keating would later become infamous for his role in the Savings & Loan scandal, where he was convicted of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy for his involvement in a scam where customers were deceived into buying worthless junk bonds, resulting in many of them losing their life savings. Keating had donated $1.25 million to Mother Teresa in the 1980s, and as he was awaiting sentencing, she wrote a letter to the court on his behalf asking for clemency.
The prosecuting attorney, Paul Turley, wrote a reply to this letter. In his reply, he explained what Keating had been convicted of, and observed, No church
should allow itself to be used as salve for the conscience of the criminal. He also pointed out that the $1.25 million Keating had donated to her was stolen money, and suggested that the appropriate course of action would be for her to give it back: You have been given money by Mr. Keating that he has been convicted of stealing by fraud. Do not permit him the indulgence he desires. Do not keep the money. Return it to those who worked for it and earned it! Teresa never replied to this letter.
Teresa cloaked a reactionary right-wing political outlook in false protestations of innocence and naivete. Although she insisted on several occasions that her mission was resolutely apolitical, Teresas true interests were anything but. Like the right-wing conservative Catholic she was, she traveled the world to lobby against the legality of abortion, contraception, and even divorce. When the International Health Organization honored Teresa in 1989, she spoke at length against abortion and contraception and called AIDS a just retribution for improper sexual conduct. Similarly, when Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she proclaimed in her acceptance speech that abortion was the greatest threat to peace in the world. (Hitchens cuttingly notes that when the award was announced, few people had the poor taste to ask what she had ever done, or even claimed to do, for the cause of peace). In 1992, she appeared at an open-air Mass in Ireland and said, Let us promise Our Lady who loves Ireland so much that we will never allow in this country a single abortion. And no contraceptives. She also campaigned in Ireland to oppose the successful 1995 referendum to legalize divorce in that predominantly Catholic country.
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- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2008/05/mother-teresa/#sthash.5SeaqOCl.dpuf