Tainted Saint: Mother Teresa Defended Pedophile Priest (SF Weekly)

[mrs_p]

9. I was in her order when this happened.

I remember it quite vividly. It made me very sick and sad. Other sisters said that we needed to forgive the priests, that they have been given grace by god and it's not our place (as wee no-nothin nuns) to pass judgement. I couldn't accept it - knew too many priests who were neither holy nor graced - and left soon after.

I still have mixed feeling about Mother. I knew her to be very gentle and kind to everyone I ever saw her interact with (except the sisters in the order - but that is another story). But, she was so blinded by faith. To the point where (I feel) she cared more about the religion than about people. Or maybe, I should say, she cared more about making people see that their suffering is a connection to Jesus' suffering, so that they would embrace it instead of fight it. That's why she didn't care about changing any policies or challenging injustices.

And, to that end, I feel that she was a hypocrite. One of the MC vows is "free and whole-hearted service to the poorest of the poor." There is no service to the poor when you dismiss their suffering or pretend it is all just part of god's plan to bring us closer to Christ. I disagreed with Christopher Hitchens on many things, but I think he was correct when he said she "was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty.” I saw it time and time again. To her, poverty was a connection with god and that there was nothing to battle on this earth. She loved poverty. She absolutely did.