the missionary position - mother teresa in theory practice

8/4/2019 The Missionary Position - Mother Teresa in Theory Practice

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( )ne may safely affirm that all popular theologr hasir kind of appetite for absurdity and contradiction. ...while their gloomy apprehensions make them:rscribe to Him measures of conduct which in humant'reatures would be blamed, they must still affect topraise and admire that conduct in the object of theirrlt'votional addresses. Thus it may safely be affirmedtlrat popular religions are really, in the conception oftlrcir more vulgar votaries, a species of daemonism.

David Hume, The Natural History of Religion

Nothing to fear in God. Nothing to feel in death.( iood can be attained. Evil can be endured.

Diogenesof 0enoanda

Where questions of religion are concerned, people:rrc guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty andi ntcllectual misdemeanour.

SigmundFreud, TheFuture of an Illusion


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F'oreword ndAcknowledgments

\Vlrowould be so baseas to pick on a wizened,shrivelled,,kl lady,well stricken in years,who has consecratedher, rrlir-eife to the needy and the destitute? On the otherlr.rrrrl, ho would be so incuriousas to leaveunexaminedtlrc nfluenceand motives of a woman who once boasted,,1operating more than five hundred convents n upwards,,1 0ll countries - 'without counting India'? Lone self-,.r, 'r-if icingealot,or chair of a missionary multinational?llrc scalealters with the perspective,and the perspective,rlltrswith the scale.

( )nce the decision is taken to do without awe and rev-.rcncer if only for a moment, the Mother Teresal,lrcrromenonssumeshe proportionsof the ordinary andr Vr'r)he political. t is part of the combatof ideasand the, l;rslrof interpretations,and can make no seriousclaims tolr,rving nvisible means of support. The first step, as sorrllr'n, s the crucial one. It stil l seemsastonishing o metlr;rlnobodyhad everbeforedecided o look at the saintoft ;rlt'rrtta s f, possibly, he supernaturalhad nothing to dorvrtr i t .

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THE MISSIONARY POSITION

IwasVerymuchdiscouraged_aslaskedthemostobviousquestionsand initiatedwhat were' at the outset,the most perfunctory investigations by almostevery-body to whom I spoke.so I must mentionseveralpeoplewho gaveme heart, andwho answeredhe implied

ques-tion - Is nothing sacred? with a stoical No'' VictorNavasky, ditor of.The ation,andGraydonCarter,editorof vanity Fair, both allowedme to write early polemicsagainstMother Teresaeven hough they had every rea-son to expect a hostile reader response (which'interestingly, ailedto materialize).n makingthe channelFour documentaryHeII'sAngel,which aired n Britain inthe autumnof 1994andwhich did lead o venomous ndirrational attacks, owe everything to VaniaDel BorgoanclTariqAli of BandungProductions, hose dea t wasand to waldemar Janusczakof channel Four,who 'toothe heat,,as he sayinggoes.A secularMuslim,a seculaJewandasecularPolishCatholicmadeexcellent ompanin fendingoff the likesof Ms VictoriaGillick,a

pestilentimorals campaignerwho statedpublicly that our programmewasaJewish/Muslimconspiracy gainsthe ont''frue Faith.colin RobinsonandMike Davisofversower(unwavering n their belief that a few words are wortlmany pictures.Ben Metcalf was and is a splendidcopeditor.

Thisisasmal lepisodeinanunendingargumel l lbetween hose who know they are right and thereforclaimthe mandateof heaven,andthosewho suspect hlthe humanracehasnothingbut the poorcandleof reas


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I rO tEWOItD A NI) ACKN OWLDDGM 11N'fS

by whichto light its way.So acknowledge swell thehelpand counseland supportof three heroes n this battle:Gore Vidal, SalmanRushdieand IsraelShahak. t wasoncewell said,of the criticismof religion, hat the criticshouldplucktheflowers rom the chain,not n order hatpeopleshouldwear he chainwithoutconsolation ut sothat heymightbreak he chainandcull the livingflower.As fundamentalmonotheism ndshallowcultism estify ooneviewof the human uture,andas he millenniumcastsitsshadow eforeus, t hasbeenaprivilegeo soldierwithsuchdistinguishedwitnesses. f the baffledand fearfulprehistoryof our species vercomes o anend,and f we('Vr etoff of our kneesandcull thoseblooms, herewillbeno need or smokingaltarsand orbidding empleswithwhich o honour he freethinking umanists, hoscornedto use he fearof death o coerceand latter he poor.

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l'.thiopians imagine their gods as black and snub-rrosedl Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired. But ifIrorses or l ions had hands, or could draw andlirshion works as men do, horses would draw thego


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Introduction

On my table as I write is an old copy of L'Assaut TlteAttack'). t is, or moreproperly t was,apropaganda rganIor the personaldespotismof Jean-Claude uvalier of[{aiti. As the helplessly at and owly and stupid son of avery gaunt and ruthless and intelligent father (fean-IiranEoisPapaDoc' Duvalier), he portly Dauphinwasknown o all, and o his evidentembarrassment,s'BabyI)oc'. In an attempt o salvage ome dignity andto estab-lishan dentity separaterom that of the parental, 'Assautt'arried he subtitle'Organe e ean-Claudisme'But this avoidance f the more accurateDuvalierism'servedonly to underline he banana-republic,ult-of-dynasty mpression hat it sought to dispel. Below theheadlineappears laughablebird, which resemblesavery plump and nearly flightless pigeonbut is clearlyintendedas a dove, udging by the stylizedsprig of oliveclamped n its beak.Beneath he dismal avian s a largeslogan n latin - In HocSignoVinces 'In this sign shallyeconquer') which appears o negate he pacificand her-bivorous ntentionsof the logo. Early Christian symbols,


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THI.I MiSSI0NARY tr '0SI I

such as the cross or the fish, sometittt('s )ol't ' ltis sttlrt'r-scr ipt ion. IhaveSeeni tannexedonpi t t t t ll l l l r ' ls l l t ' ; t r .i l lgother runes and fetishes,such as the swastik:r' ' 'r)l-il '( '1"-ta inty,nobodycouldconqueranythingt t t t tl t ' r . ; l I l l t t t t t t ' rbearing the clevice eproduced here'

ontheinside,next toalongandaclor i t tg:t t . t . t l t t t t t rc l fthe wedding anniversaryof Haiti 's bulbous Iiirsl ('itizctranr lh iscelebrateclbr ide'MicheleDuvalier ' is : t l l t rgephotograph.ltshowsMichele,poisedandc:t l t l l i t t l r l t ' l t 'gltntin her capacityas eader of Haiti 'swhite antl ('r't 'olt' ' l ite'Her bangled arms are being helcl ult lovitrg t ' l rrslr yanotherwoman,whoisof fer ingt l l ) l tg: lZ( ' | . i l l t ' t lwi threspectancldeference.Next to t l t t ' l t i t ' trrr-t 's l t r l trotatir lnfrom this other woman,who clt ' : tr ly t ' t ' ls lr lr l l t t ' r 'syco-phant icgesturesarenoten


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INTRODUCTION

as Mother Teresaof Calcutta.A number of questionsobtrude themselvesat once.First, is the picture by anychancea setup?Have he defteditorsof L'Assautmadeanexploitedvisitor out of an unsuspecting tranger,placedwords n her mouth,puther in avulnerable osition? heanswerappearso be in the negative, ecausehe dateofthis ssue sJanuary1981, nd hereexists ilm footage fMotherTeresavisitingHaiti that year.The footage,w-hichwasshownon the CBS documentaryprogrammeSixtyMinutes, asMother'feresasmiling nto the cameraands:rying, f Michele )uvalier. hatwhile shehadmetkings;rndpresidents plenty n her time,shehad neverseenthepoorpeoplebeingsofamiliarwith their headof state;rs heywerewith her. t wasa beautifulesson or tne.' nrt'turn for theseand other favours,Mother Tbresawas;rwardedheHaitian -bgion 'honnettr ndher simple es-l irnony,n warm encomiumof the ruling couple,wasslrownon state-run elevisionevery night for at least awt'ek.No protestagainst his footage s known to havelrt'en egistered y MotherTeresa whohaswaysof mak-ing her viewswidely available) etween he time of the:rwardandthe time when the Haitianpeoplebecameso'lhrniliar'with Jean-Claudend Michele that the couplelradbarelyenough ime to stuff their luggagewith theNational reasurybefore leeing or everto the FrenchItiviera.

Otherquestions riseaswell, all of them touchingonnratters f saintliness,modesty, umility anddevotion othe poor.Apart from anythingelse,what was Mother


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- f I { t " MISSIONARY l' ( )Sl I I( ) " '

Teresa cioing in Port-art - I ) r incc 't t l t ' r r r l r r r r i r l r , l ,( l ) l ) , I l l

n i t ieS anClawarcl Ceremonies wi l l r l l rc l ' r t ' r l o l t r" t r ' l t i Iwhat, incleed,wasshedoingin Fl : r i t i ; r l r l l I l r ' ' \ \ ( ) r r l l r ; t - 'a need tO piCtUre her in a pos('ol : tuott iz, ' r l r ' l r r r l l i r r . l . ;subject ion. washing the feet of C:t l t ' r l l l ; t " '1rr r t I " r l t l t ' " isnot her proper mdt ier, anCl ' t ' t -1; t i l t lVt" l l r ( ) l t l r ' l r ; r l l aworld away, in a swelter ing Cari l l l l r ' ; t l t r l i t l , r l0 t" l t t1r l l i l i t ihas been renowned for many v( ' l l l 's , t r t r l t r . , l l r '" ' r , ; r" l l teplaCe where the wretchecl o[ l l r t ' ( ' : r l l l t r ' ' ( ( ' rv. . l l t . . t ' t - t l -el leStand mOStCapriCiOusrt ' : t l t t t t ' t t l . t i ' . u ' ' l l ; t r t r l l t ' l r r lyunderstoOd, fUrther lnor( ' , t l r l r t l l r is i " rroI l l r l r r ' " r t l t t l fe i ther natUral r l iSaster or t l t l l r l l t ' t ; r l r l , ' l r r r" l , t l t r l r t '

' l 'heis land hasbeen the prol l t ' r fv ol : t t l cs l )r ' ( : r l l r ' t ; t l l ' r t rs t l ldgreedy predatory class,wl t i t ' l r l t ; ts ' t t t l r lo t ' t ' r l r i l r l .ss l6t-cein order to keep the pr lor- t t t t l l l r t ' t1 i"1r""" ' " " ' r ' r l i r r l l r t ' i rplace.

l -et US OOkagain at tht ' l t l lo lo1] l ; rp l to l l l t r ' l r ' r ' r ' r r r i l i t tgladies. In terms of receivet l i t l t ' : rs t l rot t lNlr l l l t r . t l r ' r r 's : t ' tr lOeSnot ' f i t ' . I t CIOeSot, aS 1lt 'o l r l t ' ; l \ ' r r ( ) \ \ ' ; t r l ; t t 's"( 'o t11-pute' . Image and percepti0rt : l l ' ( ' ( 'v( ' l Vt l r i r r r l , r r r ( l l rosewho possess hem have the al l i l i ty lo r l r ' l . . t t r i r r . ' l t . . i t ownmyth, tO be taken at the' ir owlt v; t l t t ; t l io t t At ' l io t ts i t l l t iwords are judged by reputat io l )s, l l l t r l t to l l l tC ol l t t ' l ' wayaround. So hold the picturt ' t t l t l r t ' l i1r l l l ( ) t : t r t t ts l r r rr l . t t ldt ry to take an impression tt f t l t t ' ' t l t ' t t : t l ivr" ts r t 1r ' rssib lethat the reverse black-ancl-whi t t ' t t ' l lsrtol ; t t i t ' "u ' ; tk ' l l t t t atruer one?

Alsobeforeme aS write s it 1l lr,t,tt ' :r1rltl M,therTeresastanding, yeSmoclest lylowlt t ' ; ts l 'l r l r . i t ' r rdly


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I NTRO D UCTIO N

propinquity with a man known as John-Roger'.At firstglance, t would seem o the casualviewer that they arestanding n a Calcuttaslum.A closer ook makes t plainthat the destitute figures in the background have beenadded n as a backdrop. he picture s a fake.So, or thatmatter, s John-Roger. s leaderof the cult known some-times as 'Insight' but more accuratelyas MSIA (the'Movementof Spiritual nner Awareness', ronounced'Messiah'), e is a fraud of Chaucerian roportions.I'robablybest known to the public for his lucrative con-rtection o Arianna Stassinopoulos-Huffington whoseIrusband, ichaelHuffington, pent$42millionof his owninheritedmoneyon an unsuccessfulid for a Senate eatin California John-Roger asrepeatedly laimed o be,rrnd o have,a'spiritual onsciousness'thats superior othat of JesusChrist. Such a claim is hard to adjudicate.()nemight think, all the same, hat it wouldbe blasphe-nrous o the simpleoutlookof Mother Teresa.Yet thereshe s, keepinghim company nd endinghim the lustreofIrt'rnameand mage.MSIA, t shouldbe noted,hasrepeat-crllybeen exposedn print as corrupt and fanatical, ndlhe Cult AwarenessNetwork lists the organization s'highlydangerous'.

It turns out that the faked photograph ecords thenromentousccasion f Mother Teresa's cceptance f at'heque or $10,000.t came n the form of an 'IntegrityAward'bestowed yJohn-Roger imself a manwho real-izedhis own divinity n the aftermathof avisionarykidneyoperation. o doubtMother Teresa's pologists ill have


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their defence loseathand.Their heroine s too innocentto detectdishonestyn others.ud $10,000s $ tl,tltX) nd,as Ienin wasfond of saying(citingJuvenal),pecunianonolet:'moneyhas no smell'.Sowhat is morelnattrrirl hanthat she should quit Calcuttaonce mor(', otn'n('y oTinseltownand share her aurawith a guru t'lirirrring ooutrank he Redeemer imself?We will clisc


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INTRODUCTION

when the clinton motorcadewhisked through thePakistani countryside yesterday,a long fence ofbrightly coloredfabric shielded t from a sprawling,smolderinggarbagedump where children combedthrough trash and severalpoor families had builthutsfrom scrapsof cardboard, agsandplastic. .. rnanother instance,Pakistaniofficials, having heardrumors that the First tady misht takeahike into thescenic Marg alla Hills overlooking the capital ofIslamabad,ushedout andpaveda 10-milestretchofroadto a village n the hills. Shenever ook the hike(theSecretServicevetoed he proposal)but villagersgot apaved oad hey'dbeen equesting or decades.In suchwaysdo Western eaders mpress hemselvesmomentarilyupon the poor of the world, before flying

home much purified and soberedby the experience.Astopat a Mother Teresa nstitution s absolutelyd,e igueurfor all celebritiesvisiting the region,andMrs Clintonwasnot going to be the breakerof precedent.Having racedpast intersectionswhere cars, buses, rickshaws andpedestrianswere backedup as far as the eyecould see',she arrived at Mother Teresa'sNew Delhi orphanage,where, again to quote from the reporter on the spot,'babieswho normally wear nothing but thin cotton dia-persthat do little but promoterashesandexacerbate hereek of urine had been outtitted for the morning inAmericanPampersandnewly-stitched loral pinafores'.one good turn deserves another, and so Mother


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THE MISSIONARY POSITIO N

Tbresa's subsequent visit to Washington gav() both MrsClinton and Mayor Barry the occasion or sonl(' s:r[r', reepublicity. The new twelve-bed adoption ct:ntrt' is in therather leafy and decorous Chevy Chas(, strl lurb, andnobody was churlish enough to mention Mollrcr''li'resa'searlier trip to the city in October 1981, wlrt'n shc hadfurned the light of her countenanceon thc llliglrlt.(lghettoof Anacostia. Situated in near segregation on llrt' otherside of the Potom?c,Anacost ia s tht ' ( ' : r l ) i t r r lo l 'b lackWashington,and there was suspicionat llrt. l irrrt.aboutthe idea of a Missionaries of Chari ty ol)( . r ' i r l iorrhere,because he inhabitantswere kn


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INTRODUCTION

'Mother Teresa,what do you hope to accomplishhere?''The joy of lovingandbeing oved.' r*\'That takesa lot of money,doesn'tit?' i'It takesa lot of sacrifice.' ""--")

'Do you teach he poor to endure heir lot?''I think it is very beautiful or the poor to accepttheir lot, to share t with the passionof Christ. I thinkthe world is being much helpedby the suffering ofthe poorpeople.'

Marion Barry gracedthe eventwith his presence,ofcourse,asdid ReverendGeorgeStallings,he blackpastorof StTbresa's.Fourteenyears ater,Anacostia s an evenworseslumandthe ReverendStallingshassecededromthe Church in order to set up a blacks-onlyCatholicismdevotedchieflyto himseH. He hasalsobeen n a spotofbother lately for allegedlyoutraging the innocence of.ajunior congregant.)only Marion Barry, reborn in prisonand re-electedas a demagogue,has really mastered heusesof redemption.so behold again the photographof Mother Tbresalocked n a sisterlyembracewith Michele Duvalier,oneofthe modern world's most cynical, shallow and spoiledwomen:a whited sepulchreand a parasiteon 'the poor'.The picfure,and its context,announceMother Tbresaaswhat she is: a religious fundamentalist,a political opera-

tive,a'primitivesermonizerandan accompliceof worldly,secularpowers.Her missionhasalwaysbeenof this kind.11


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THE MISSIONARY POSITI0N

The irony is that shehas neverbeenable to induce any-body to believeher. It is past time that she was dulyhonoured,and aken at her word.When I asked the electronic index at tht' Library ofCongress to furnish me with a list of llooks on MotherTeresa, it printed out some twenty ti t l t 's. ' l ' l l ( ' r( l wasMother Teresa:Helfing the Poor, by Willianr .lay .ltrc:obs;Mother Teresa:The Glorious Years,by litlwrrrtl Il Jolly;Mother Teresa:A Woman in Loue, whiclt lookt'tl morepromising but turned out to be by tht' siull(' ttttltor n thesame spirit; Moth,erTeresa:Protector of thr Sir'ft, ty LindaCarlson Johnson; Mother Teresa:Seruilnt to thr Wtrld'sSufferingPeople,by SusanUllstein; Mothrr'l'( r(su I"riendof the Friendless,by Carol Greene; atttl Molhrr 'l'eresa:Caring or AU God'sChildren,by llt'tsy Lcr' - to n;ln)obutthe most salient titles. Even the nrost n('ult' itlol'tltcse -Mother Teresa:Her Life, Her Works, ly l)r' Lttslr Oit'rgji -proved o be a sort of devotional arrt l l l t l t ' l rr lrt 'guise ofa biography, composed by one ol ' Mol l t t ' l ' ' l ' ( ' l ' ( 'sa'sAlbanian co-religionists.

Indeed, he overall one was so strortgly lt'voliorurl hatit seemedalmost normal for a morttt 'ttt.Yt'l i l yotr t-t'viewthe above i t lesout loud - Motht ' r ' l i ' l ' t 's i r , t t ' l lx ' t 'ol ' thepoor,protectorof the sick, servant o tl l(' sullcrirrg, i' iendof the friendless you are n fac't ttitttit'kilrg ut nv(x'ationof the Virgin and improvising your own 'Avt' Mrtt' irt 'or'Hail Mary'. Note, too, the scakrol' tltt' irtvocirliort theworld'ssufferingpeople,all Gocl's hilrlrt' lt,Wlr;rlwc llave

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INTRODUCTION

here is a saint in the making,whosesitesand relics willone day be veneratedand who is alreadythe personalobjectof a following hat is not much short of cultish.The presentPope s unusually ond of the canonizationprocess. n sixteenyears he has created ive times asmany saintsas all of his twentieth-centurypredecessorscombined.He hasalsomultiplied he numberof beatifica-tions, thus keeping the ante-room o sainthoodwellstocked.Between1588and 1988 he Vaticancanonized679saints. n the reign of John PaulII alone (asof June1995),here havebeen27Lcanonizations nd 631beatifi-cations.Several undredcasesarependiog,ncluding hepetition o canonizeQueen sabellaof Spain.So rapidandgeneral s the approach hat it recalls he baptismby fire-hose with which ChinesegeneralsChristianized heirarmies; n one L9BT eremonyagrandtotalof 85 English,Scottish,Welsh and Irish martyrs were beatified in oneday.Sainthoods no smallclaim,becauset bringswith it thepower to make intercessionand it allows prayer to bedirectedat the saidsaint.Many popeshavebeenslow tocanonize, s he Churchis generallyslowto validatemira-cles and apparitions,because f divine intervention inhuman affairs is too promiscuouslyrecognized, hen anobviousdangerarises. f one epercanbe cured, he flockmay inquire, then why not all lepers?Allow of a too-easymiracleand t becomesharderto answerquestionsaboutinfant eukaemiaor masspovertyand njusticewith unsat-isflnng ormulaeabout he [.ord'spreference or moving in

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THE MISSIONARY P0SI ' I ' I0N

mysteriousways.This is anoldprobk'nl, ul(l t is ullikelyto yield to mass-production ethodology1 tll(,('ilrxtniza-tion division.

Althougha 'saint'traditionallys r()cltrirr.rlo lr:rve er-formed at leastone miracle, o havc (klrrt. goerlwgrks'andpossessedheroicvirtuS', nd o h:lv(. lt.nronstratedthe logisticallydifficult qualityof ubiquity,nr:yry reoplewho arenot evenRomanCatholics avt. rlrt.irtlylt'cidedthat Mother Teresa s a saint.Sourc(,srr llrt. Vatican's'Congregationor SainthoodCaus(,s' wlrit'lr .xarninesthorny cases ike that of Queen sabt'lla) rb:urrkrnheircustomary eticenceand reserve n (l(.('lirrilrgMgtherTbresa's eatification ndeventual 'anonizrrliono lle cer-tain.This consummationanhardlyrlislllt.irs(,lcr, but itmaynothavebeenamongher originaloll.it.('tiv(.s.{er ifeshows, ather,zdeterminationo betht' li)unrlt.r'ol'aeworder- her Missionaries f Charityorganizalion.rrrrentlynumberssome4,000 unsand40,000aywor-k('r'sto berankedwith St Francis ndSt Beneclicts lrr. rrrtlror f a'rule'anda'discipline'.

MotherTbresahasa theoryof poverty,whir'lr s alsoatheoryof submission ndgratitude.Sheh1s rlso r lreoryof power,which derives rom St Paul'snt'glt,('l(.(lwordsabout the powers hat be',which 'areonlirirrt.rl l' (iod'.She s, inall5r,heemissary faverydett'rrrrilr.tlrrrrl erypoliticizedpapacy.Her world travelsar(' rrol lrt. wlrnder-ings of a pilgrim but a campaignwhic'h rccortlswith therequirementsof power.Mother Tbresil rirs l llrt'r)ryofmorality oo. It is not a difficult theory to ('onrl)r'(,lrt:nd,L4


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INTRODUCTION

though it has its difficulties.And Mother Tbresaunder-standsvery thoroughly the usesof the biblical passageconcerningwhat is owed o Caesar.As to what is owed to God, that is a matter for thosewho havefaith, or for thosewho at any rate are relievedthat othershave t. The rich part of our world hasa poorconscience, nd it is no fault of an Albaniannun that somany otherwisecontentedpeopleshould decideto livevicariously hrough what they imagine to be her charity.Vlhat followshere is an argumentnot with a deceiverbutwith the deceived.f MotherTeresa s the adoredobjectofmanycredulousanduncriticalobservers, hen the blameis nothers,or hersalone. n the gradualmanufacfureof anillusion,the conjurer is only the instrument of the audi-ence.He mayevenannouncehimseHas a trickster andacleverprestidigitatorandyet gull the crowd Populusaultdecipi ergodecipiatur

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Convulsions in nature, disorders, prodigies,miracles, though the most opposite to the plan of awise superintendent, impress mankind with thestrongest sentiments of religron.David Hume TheNatural HistoryofReligion

Upon the whole, mystery, miracle and prophecy areappendages that belong to fabulous and not to huereligion. They are the means by which so many Loheres! and I-o theres! have been spread about theworld, and religion been made into a ffade. Thesuccess of one impostor gave encouragement toanother, and the quieting salvo of doing some goodby keeping up a pious fraud, protected them fromremorse.

Tbm Paine,The ue of Reason

Thus we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfilment is a prominent factor in its motivatior,and in doing so we disregard its relations to realityjust as the illusion itself sets no store by verification.

SigmundFreud, TheFuture of an lllusion


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J ntercessior, the hallmark of sainthood,requires theI ."rtification of amiracle.Mother Teresa s alreadywor-shippedassomethingmore thanhuman,but shehasnottranscendedour common ot to the extent of being citedas a wonder-workerby Mother Church. The printout ofthe titlesprovidedme by the Library of Congressshowedthat almostallwerepublished n the 1980sand1990s, ndit wasn't until I had been through the list that I noticedwhatwasnot there: alg7Lbook by MalcolmMuggeridgewhich argued, nter alia, that Mother Tbresa'smiraclehad already akenplace.

Muggeridge'sbook, SomethingBeautiful or God,wasthe outcomeof a BBC documentaryof the samename'screenedn 1969.Muggeridge,who madesomethingof acareerout of ridiculingTV andshowbizvalues, laims hathe beganthe projectwith no idea of the impression twould help to create. Mother Tbresa'sway of looking atlife is barren soil for copy-writers',he says, andthe poor-est of the poor she cherishesoffer little in the way ofratings.' If that disingenuousdisclaimerwas true when

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THE MISSIONAITY I,0SI ' I ' I0N

filmingbegdfr,t ceasedo betru('v('ry slrortlyafter rans-mission adoccurred,or t is frorn his ilrn rnrl hisbookthatwecandate he arrival f Motlrt,r'li,r-t,s:r 'simage' nthe international etina.Essentialo Muggeridge's rojec't,.ss('ntialndeed othe whole Mother Teresacult, is tht. inrlrressionhat

Calcuttas a hellhole:As it happened, lived in Cak'trtt:rirr t ' ighteenmonths n the middleThirties wht'rr wusworkingwith the Statesmanewspape'rh('r'(', nrl ound heplace, venwith all the comfortsol':r itn'ol)ean'sife- the refrigerator,he servants,lrt.nrorningcanterround heMaidan r outat he.lorlhlxu-(' ltrb,ndsoon - barely olerable.

SinceMuggeridge'sime, hec:ityhasnol onlyhacltsownenormous ifficultieso contenrlwith rtrt t husalsobeenthe sceneof three majormigrationsol' rrristry.Havingbeen tselfpartitionedby a stupicl lritish ('elgpialdeci-sionbefore ndependence,engal ook tht' llnrnt of thepartitioningof all India into India and I'aliist:rnn L}AT.The Bangladeshwar in LgTrand, latcr, tlrt, st'ctarianbrushfiresn AssamhaveswollenCalc:utlu'sx)l)ulationoa number far greater han it can holle to :t('conrmodate.Photographs f people ivingon pavcnl('nlsr;rv('lecomeinternationallyecognized mblems f rlt'stt orr.MotherTeresa's mphasis n thepoorest f thr',xx)r' rrrrlhe ow-est of the low' hasserved o reinforce ht' irrrpr-t.ssionf

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A MIRACLE

Calcuttaas a city of dreadful night, an impressionwhichjustly irritates many Bengalis.The pleasantsurprise hat awaits he visitor to Calcutta

is this: it is poor andcrowdedand dirty, in wayswhich arehard to exaggeratebut it is anythingbut a,bject ts peopleare neither inert nor cringing.They work andthey strug-gle, and as a generalrule (especiallyas comparedwithostensibly icher cities suchasBombay) hey do not beg.This is the city of Tagore,of Ray and Bose and MrinalSen, and of a great flowering of culture and nationalism.There are films, theatrs,university departmentsandmagazines,all of a high quality.The photographs ofRaghubirSingh are a testament o the vitality of the peo-ple,aswell as o the beautyandvarietyof the architecfure.Secular-leftistpolitics predominate,with a very stronginternationalist emper: hardly unwelcome n a region sopoisonedby brute religion.When I paid my own visit to the city someyearsago,immediately felt rather cheated by the anti-Calcuttapropaganda ut out by the Muggeridgesof the world.Arrdwhen I mademy way to the offices of the MissionariesofCharity on Bose Road, receivedsomethingof a shock.First was the inscription over the dool which read 'Hethat lovethcorrection oveth knowledge'. don't know theprovenanceof the quotatiotr,but it had something of thering of the workhouse about it. Mother Tbresa herselfgaveme a guided tour. f did not particularly care for theway hat she ook kissesbestowedon her sandalledeetasno morethan her due,but I decided o suspendudgment

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THE MISSIOI{ARY POSII ' ION

on this - perhaps t wasa localcustom hat I understoodimperfectly.The orphanage,anyway,was moving andaffecting. frry small (noshame n that) andvery clean, thad an encouragingair andseemed o be run by ch arm-ing and devotedpeople.one tiny cot stood empty, tsoccupantnot having survived the night, and there wasearnestdiscussionabout a vacancy o be filled. I hadbegunto fumble for a contributionwhen Mother Tbresaturned to me andsaid,with agesture hat seemedo takein thewholescene,See,his is howwefiehtabortionandcontraception.'If not for this, it would havebeentrifling to point outthe drop-in-a-bucketontribution hat suc:h smallestab-lishment makesto such a gigantic'problem.But it isdifficult to spendanytime at all in Calcuttaandconcludethatwhat it mostneeds s a campaignagainstpopulation

control.Nor, of course,doesMother 'lt.resa make thisjudgmentbasedon ocalconditions. ht.wasopposed nprinciple o abortionand birth control long beforeshegot there. For her, Calcutta s simply a fropt in a muchlarger war.Muggeridge's fatalistic revulsion fronr theractualCalcuttamade him all the more rec('ptivt, e MotherTbresa'smysticalprescription or the plar.r.,whic:hs thatit suffers rom being too distant rom Jr.sss. n conse-quence, is gullibility ed him to write thr' following,which

isworth quotingat ength. I shouldprelact,lr(,(luotationby saying hat Muggeridge'sBBC crew inclsrlt,4a verydistinguished ameraman amedKen M:lt-rrrillrtn, ho24


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A MIRACLE

hadearnedagreatreputation or his work on [,ord Clark'sart-history seriesCiuilisation.)This Home for the Dying is dimly lit by small win-dowshigh up in the walls,and Ken wasadamant hatfilming wasquite impossible here. We had only onesmall light with us, and to get the placeadequatelylighted in the time at our disposalwasquite impossi-ble.It wasdecidedhat,nonetheless, en shouldhave? go, but by way of insurancehe took, aswell, somefilm in an outside courtyard where some of theinmateswere sitting n the sun. n the processedllm,the part taken inside was bathed in a particularlybeautifulsoft ight, whereas he part takenoutsidewasrather dim and confused. .. I myselfam absolutelyconvinced hat the technicallyunaccountable ightis, in fact,theKindly Light [Cardinal]Newman efersto in his well-knownexquisite hymn.

Nor was Muggeridge attempting o speakmetaphorically.Of the love he observed n the home,he wrotethat it was

luminous, ike the haloesartists haveseenand madevisible round the headsof the saints. find it not at allsurprising that the luminosity should register on aphotographic ilm. The supernafural s only an infi-nite projectionof the natural,&S he furthest hori zonis an image of eternity.Jesusput mud on a blindman'seyesandmadehim see.

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THE MISSIONARY POSIl ' I0 N

Havinggone on in this vein for sometime, Muggeridgeconcluded:This is preciselywhat miraclesarefor - to reveal heinner realityof God'soutwardcreation. am person-ally persuadedhat Ken record,edhe irst authenticphotographicmiracle. Emphasisaddecl.Muggeridgedid not exaggeratewhen he wrote 'I fear Italked andwrote about t to the point of tedium'.So t isinteresting o have he direct testimonyof Ken MacmillanhimseH:During somethingBeauttfut or God, here was anepisodewhere we were taken to a building thatMother Tbresacalled he Houseof the Dying.PeterChafer; he director,said, Ah well, it's very dark inhere-Do you think we canget something?'Andwehad ust takendelivery atthe BBC of somenewfilmmade by Kodak,which we hadn't had time to testbeforewe left, soI said o peter,well, we mayaswellhaveago.' so we shot t. And whenwe got backsev-eral weeks ater,a month or two later,we are sittingin the rushes heatreat EalingStudiosandeventuallyup came he shotsof the Houseof the Dying.And itwas surprising.You could see every detail.And Isaid, That's amazing.That's extraordinary.'And Iwasgoingto go on to say, ou know, hreecheers orKodak. I didn't get a chance o say that though,

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A MIRACLE

becauseMalcolm, sitting in the front row, spunround and said: It's divine ight! It's Mother Tbresa.You'll ind that it's dMne light, old boy.'Andthreeorfour days ater I found I wasbeing phonedby jour-nalists from London newspaperswho were sayingthings like: '\ fe hear you've ust come back fromIndia with Malcolm Muggeridge and you were thewitnessof a miracle.'And a star was born. Ken Macmillan's estimonycame

fag far too lateto prevent he spread,argelyby the televi-sualand mass-mediamethodsthat Muggeridge affectedto despise, f the reported miracle'.Rather han the firstauthenticphotographicmiracle', his episode s actuallysomethingconsiderablymore significant.It is the firstunarguablerefutation of a claimed miracle to come notmerelyfrom anothersupposedwitness o saidmiraclebutfrom its actual eal-timeauthor.As such, t deserves o bemore widelyknown han t is.But modern echnologyandcommunications ave ensured nstead hat rumour andmyth canbe transmittedwith evergreaterspeedandeffi-ciency to the eyes and ears of the credulous. Howsplendidlywe progress.EversinceSomething eautr,fulorGod, he critic of Mother Tbresa, n small hings as well asin great ones,has had to operateagainstan enormousweight of received opinion,a weight made no easier oshiftby the factthat it is madeup,quite iterally,of illusion.

Muggeridgegavenumerousotherhostageso fortuneduring the course of his film and his book. Only his27


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adoring gaze, or example, nhibited him from seeing herangeof interpretation hat might be placedon the follow-ing anecdote:

As SimoneWeil says,Christianity is a religion forslaves;we have to make ourselvesslavesand beg-gars to follow Christ. Despitethe chronic financialstringencyof the Missionariesof Chanty,whenI wasinstrumental n steeringa few hundred pounds nMother Teresa'sdirection, she astonished,and Imustsayenchanted,me by expendingt on the chal-iceandciborium or her newnovitiate. .. Her actionmight, I suppose, e criticizedon the same ines asthe wasteof spikenardointment,but it gave me agreat feeling of contentmentat the time and sub-sequently.

Of course f thepurposeof MotherTbresa'swork is thatofstrict religious proselytizationand the founding of anorder toward hat end, herecanbe no conc:eivablebjec-tion to her employingcharitabledonations n order todecoratean altarpiecewith the things of this world. Butthosewho make the donationsare, t seems,not alwaysaware hat this is the essentialpoint. Mother Tbresa, oher credit,hasneverclaimedotherwise.Shedid notevenbother to usethe biblicalstory of the spikenarcl intmentin reassuringMuggeridge,telling him insteraclhat 'youwill be daily on the altarclose to the Body of Christ'.Muggeridge was not then a Catholic, so he had no

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A MIRACLE

grounds on which to objectthat this was a doubly triclryuseof the notion of transubstantiation.He thought of thespikenarclalibi all by hirnself. (This is the passage nwhichJesusbreaksa costlybox of unguentexclusivelyonhis own feet.Tb the naive objection hat the luxury itemmight with greater effect have been sold for the relief ofpoverty,he rejoins, The poor you have alwayswith you.'I remember as a child finding this famouscrack ratherunsatisfactory.Either oneeschewsuxury andserves hepooror onedoesnot. If the poor arealwayswith us,on theotherhand, hen there is no particularhurry and hey canalwaysbe used o illustratemorality tales. n which case,tmight be more honest or their propheticbenefactorsoadmit that the poorhave us alwayswith them.)

Modesty and humility are popularly supposed o besaintlyattributes,yet Mother Tbresacanscarcelygrant anaudiencewithout claiminga specialandpersonal elation-shipwith JesusChrist.In the followingexchangebetweenMuggeridge and his star,who is the one demonstratingthe self-abnegatingmodesty?

MUGGERIDGE:hen I think of Calcuttaand of theappallingnessof so much of it, it seemsextraordi-nary that onepersoncould ust walk out anddecideto tacklethis thing.MOTHERERESA:was sure then, and I'm still con-vinced, hat it is He andnot I.

Here is a perfect fit between nterviewer and subject:29


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Muggeridge finds the poor of Calcutta o be rife with'appallingness',nd Mother Tbresasays hat therewouldbe no point in trying if onewasnot mandatedby heaven.A little further on in the interview Muggeridge nquiresasfollows:Soyou wouldn't agreewith peoplewho say here aretoo manychildren n India?MOTHERERESA:do not agreebecauseGod alwaysprovides-He provides or the flowersandthe birds,for everfihing in the world that he hascreated.Andthose little children are his life. There canneverbeenough.

Muggeridge approvesof this reply, sayingmoistly thatMother Tbresamight as well be asked if there are toomanystars n the slqy. he entire dialogue s conducted na semi-surrealmanner,as if nobodyhad ever madeanyreasonedpoint about family planningor populationpol-icy.Tb say hat there aretoo manychildren is to miss thepoint,becausehey arebornalready.But to say hat therecannotbetoo many people s (andnot only in India) tocommit at least he sin of hubris. Mrs Indira Gandhi- apoliticalpatron of Mother Tbreso's, ncidentally onceembarked upon a criminal campaignof forced steriliza-tion in India. Clearly there are many waysof getting thepopulationquestionwrong.On the otherhand, here s norationalway of sayingthat the questiondoesnot arise.And if it were true that God 'alwaysprovides,, hen,

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A MIRACLE

obviously,herewouldbe no need or the MissionariesofCharity in the first place.Before eavingMuggeridge'smilestonebehindus, t is

necessary tp record one more of the interchangesbetweenhim andhis guru:

MUGGERIDGE:ou don't think that there's a dangerthat peoplemight mistake the meansfor the end,andfeel that serving their fellow men was an end initselfi Do you think there'sa dangerof that?MoTHEREREs* here is always he dangerthat wemay becomeonly socialworkersor just do the workfor the sakeof thework. ... It is a danger; f we forgetto whom we are doing it. Our works are only anexpressionof our love or Christ.Our heartsneed obe fuIl of love for him, and sincewe haveto expressthat love in actioo,naturally then the poorestof thepoorarethe meansof expressingour lovefor God.In the film of.SomethingBeautiful for God, here is a

sequence n which Mother Tbresatakes an abandonedandundernourished hild in her arms.The child is sicklylooking and wizenedandwithout much of the charm thatbabiespossess t that &Se, ut the old lady ooksdownather with dauntlessencouragernentand enthusiasmandsays,See.There a'sife in her.' It is anundeniablyaffirma-tive moment. \ fe would not be worse off if there weremany more like it. But, just as Mother Teresa ratherspoiledher ownbestmomentfor me by implying that her

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life's work was a mere exercise in propaganda or theVatican'spopulationpolicy,shecheapensher own exam-ple by telling us, as abov, hat humanism and altruismare dangers' o be sedulouslyavoided.Mother Teresahasnever pretendedthat her work is anything but a funda-mentalist religious campaign.And in the excerpt abovewe have it on her own authority that 'the poorest of thepoor' arethe instrumentsof this;an occasionor piety.

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Fan Ch'ih asked about wisdom. The master said:'To work for the things the common people have arigflrt to, and to keep one's distance frorn the godsand spirits while showin$ them reverence can becalled wisdom.'

Confucius,AnalectsBookW, 22

No Philosopher was on hand to tell him that there isno strong sentiment without some terror, oSthere isno real religion without a little fetishism.

JosephConrad,Victory

Star light, star bright ... we look up and we hopethe stars look down, we pray ttrat there may be starsfor us to follow, stars moving across the heavensand leading up to our destiny but it's only ourvanity. We look at the galaxy and fall in love, but theuniverse cares less about us than we do about it,and the stars stay in their courses however much wemay wish upon them to do otherwise. Ifs true thatif you watch the slry-wheel firrn for a while you'll seea meteor fall, flame and die. Thafs not a star worthfollowing; ifs just an unluclry rock. Our fates arehere on earth. There are no guiding stars.

SalmanRushdie,TheMoor's -a,stSigh


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T\ hose prepared to listen to criticism of MotherI Tbresa'squestionablemotivesandpatentlyconfusedsociologicalpolicy are still inclined to believe that herwork is essentiallyhumane.Surely, hey reason, here issomethingmorally impressive n a life consecrated ocharity. f it were not for the testimonyof thosewho haveseenthe shortcomingsand contradictionsof her workfirsthatrd, t might be sufficientargument,on the groundsthat Mother Tresa mu.sf avedonesomegenuinegoodfor the world'ssufferingpeoPle.

However,evenhere the record is somewhatmurlry anduneven,and t is qualifiedby the same imitationsas applyto the rest of Mother Tbresa'swork: that such work isundertakennot for its own sakebut to propagandizeonehighly subjectiveview of humannatureandneed,so thatshe may one daybe countedas the beatific ounderof aneworder anddisciplinewithin the Church itseH.Even nthe quotidiandetailsof ostensibly charitable' abour, hisunresolved ontradiction epeatedlydisclosestseH.

Take,asoneunremarkedexample,he visit of Dr Robin37


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Fox to the Mother Tbresaoperation n Calcutta n Lgg4.As editor of TheLa,ncef, erhaps he world's eadingmed-ical ournal,Dr Fox wasprofessionallynterested n, andqualified to pronounce upon, the standardsof care.The opening paragraphsof his report in the journal's17 SeptemberL994ssuealsomake it clear that he paidhis visit with every expectation of being favourablyimpressed. ndeed,his tone of slightly raised-eyebrowpolitenessneverdesertshim:

There aredoctorswho call in from time to time butusually the sistersand volunteers (someof whomhave medicalknowledge)make decisionsas bestthey can. sawayoungmanwho had beenadmittedin poor shapewith high fever,and the drugs pre-scribedhadbeen etracyclineandparacetamol. atera visitingdoctordiagnosed robablemalariaandsub-stituted chloroquine. Could not someonehavelookedat a bloodfilm?Investigations, was old,areseldom permissible.How about simple algorithmsthatmight helpthe sistersandvolunteersdistinguishthe curablefrom the incurable?Again no. Suchsys-tematicapproachesre alien to theethos f thehome.Mother Teresaprefersprouid,enceo planning; herrulesare designedopreuentanydrift towardsmateri-alism:the sistersmust remain on equalterms withthe poor.... Finally,how competentarethe sistersatmanagingpain?on a short visit, I couldnot udgethepowerof their spirifualapproach, ut I wasdisfurbed

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GOOD WORKS AND HEROIC VIRTUES

to learn that the formulary includesno strong anal-gesics.Along with the neglectof diagnosis, he lackof good analgesiamarks Mother Teresa'sapproachas clearly separate rom the hospicemovement.knowwhich I prefer.[Emphasisadded.]

It shouldbe underlinedthat the stateof affairsdescribedby Dr Foxwasnot that obtaining n someamateur,mpov-erishedclinic in a disasterzone.Mother Tbresahasbeenworking in Calcutta or four and a half decades,and fornearly hree of them shehasbeen avouredwith immensequantitiesof money and material.Her 'Home for theDying',which was he part of her dominionvisitedby DrFox, is in no straitenedcondition. t is ashe described tbecausehat is how Mother Tbresawishes t to be.Theneglectof what is commonlyunderstoodaspropermedi-cine or care is not a superficial contradiction. t is theessence f the endeavour,he sameessencehat is evidentin a cheerful sign which has been filmed on the wall ofMother Tbresa'smorgue. t reads I am going to heaventoday'.

According to many other former volunteers,Dr Foxmayhavepaidhis visit on an unusuallygood day,or mayhave been unusuallywell looked after.Mary lnudon, avolunteer in Calcuttawho has since written extensivelyabout he lives of nunsand religiouswomen,hasthis tes-timony to offer about he Homefor the Dying:

My initial impressionwasof all the photographsand39


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THE MISSIONARY POSITIONfootage Ve everseenof Belsenandplaces ike that,because ll the patientshadshavedheads.No chairsanywhere, here were just these stretcher beds.They're like First \4lorldWar stretcherbeds.There,sno garden,no yard even.No nothing.And I thoughtwhat is this?This is two roomswith fiffy to sixty menin one, ifty to sixty women n another.They,redying.They'renot beinggivenagreatdealof medicalcare.They're not being given painkillers really beyondaspirin and maybe if you're luctry some Brufen orsomething, or the sort of pain that goeswith termi_nal cancerandthe things theyweredying of ...They didn't haveenoughdrips.The needles heyused and re-usedover and over and over and youwould seesomeof the nuns rinsing needlesunderthe cold watertap.And I askedoneof them why shewas doing it and she said:Well to clean t.'And Isaid, Yes,but why areyounot sterilizingit;why areyou not boiling water and sterilizingyour needles?,she said: There'sno point.There,sno time.,The first day was herewhenI'd finishedworkingin the women'sward I went and waitedon the edgeof the men'sward for my boyfriend,who was ookingafteraboy of fifteenwho wasdying,andanAmericandoctortold me that shehad been rying to treat thisboy.And hat he hadareallyrelativelysimplekidneycomplaint hat had simplygot worseand worseandworse becausehe hadn't had antibiotics.And heactuallyneededari operation. don't recallwhat the

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problem was,but she did tell me. And she was soangry,but alsovery resignedwhich somanypeoplebecome n that sifuatioll.And she said, well, theywon't takehim to hospital.'And I said: ffiry? All youhave o do is get a cab.Take him to the nearesthos-pital, demandthat he has treatment. Get him anoperation.'Shesaid: They don'tdo it. They won't doit. If they do it for one, hey do it for everybody.'AndI thought - but this kid is fifteen.

Bear in mind that Mother Teresa'sglobal income ismore than enough to outfit severalfirst-classclinics inBengal.The decisionnot to do So,and indeedto runinsteada haphazard, nd cranky institution which wouldexpose tseH o litigation and protest were it run by anybranchof the medicalprofession,s a deliberateolle.Thepoint is not the honestrelief of suffering but the promul-gation of a cult based on death and suffering andsubjection.Mother Teresa (who herself, it should benoted,has checked nto someof the finest and costliestclinics and hospitalsin the West during her bouts withheart trouble andold age)oncegave his gameaway n afilmed interview.Shedescribeda personwho was in thelastagoniesof cancerandsufferingunbearable ain-Withasmile,Mother Teresa old the camerawhat shetold thisterminal patienil 'You are suffering like Christ on thecross.SoJesusmust be kissingyou.' IJnconscious f theaccount o which this irony might be charged,she thentold of the sufferer's reply: 'Then please ell him to stop

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THE MISSIONARY POSITIONkissingme.'Therearemanypeoplen the direstneedandpainwho havehad cause o wish, in their own extremity,that Mother Tbresawas ess ree with her ownmetaphys-ical caresses nda little more attentive o acfualsuffering.After I had helped to make Hell'sAnget,a documentaryaboutMotherTeresa's hortcomingswhichwasscreenedon ChannelFour in England n the autumn of LggA,Ireceiveda number of communicationsrom former vol-unteers and even from former members of theMissionariesof Charity"Somewished to remain anony-mousandsomeseemedacfuatedby motivesof revengeorotherpersonaldisorders.My practice n citing the onesconsider o begenuine s as ollows: he personmusthavebeenwilling to be quotedby nameand to give bonafideanswers o somebackgroundquestions.t me instanceMs Elry Gillespie,author,ournalistandsometimeeditorof TheSanFranciscoReuiewofBooks.Experienced n thecare of AIDS patients,she spentsometime at MotherTbresa'sSanFranciscobranch:

Sent o cook in her hostel, acffullynamed The Giftof Love' (it is for homelessmenwith Hrv), I foundadozenor so very sick men; but thosewho weren,tvery sick were exceptionallydepressed, ecausetheywerenot allowed o watchTV or smokeor drinkor have riendsover.Evenwhentheyaredying,closefriends are not allowed.They are never allowedtodrink' even (or especially)at the funerals of their42


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GooDwoRKSANDHEROICVIRTUES

friendsandroommatesandsomehavebeen hrownout for cominghome n drag!When I mentioned heolympics to them,they lookedevenmoredepressed.,we arenot watching the olympics,' said a sisterfrom Bombay, becausewe are making our l-entensacrifice.'Whenhey'revery sick andvery religious(which s often he case .. ) this doesn'tmatter,butwith brighter men or oldermen it seems ntolerable.

A Guatemalanwriter that I befriendedthere wasdesperate o get out, so a friend of mine who alsocooks here (anAfricanAmericanwho is apractisingcatholic) adoptedhim for as long as shecould.Hebecamemuchsickerandwhenshebeggedhim to gobackbecause hecouldn'tmind him, he beggedherto keep him becausehe knew they didn't medicateenough,or properly,andwasafraidhe wouldhave odie without morphine ... I am now cooking occa-sionally for the homelessmen at the Franciscanswhere one of the patients,Bruce, is an ex-MotherTeresa and neither he nor the priest have a goodword to say or the Sistersat'The Gift of Love''Manyvolunteersat hostelsandclinicsfrom Calcutta o

SanFranciscohavecomparablealesto relate.Especiallyimpressives the testimonyof SusanShields,who for nineandaha6yearsworked asa memberof Mother TEresa'sorder, iving the dailydisciplineof aMissionaryof Charityin the Bronx, in Romeand in SanFrancisco. haveherpermission o quote rom her unpublishedmanuscript,n

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Mother'sHouse,which is an honest,well-writtenaccount,offered by a womanwho left the Missionariesof Charityfor the same eason hat she oined it - a loveof her fellowhumans.3f her memoir reads ike the testimonyof a for-mer cult member, his is becausen manyways t is. Sherelatesthat, within the order, total obedience o the dic-tates of a single woman is enforced at every level.Questioningof authority s not an optior].

I wasable o keepmy complainingconscience uietbecausewe hadbeentaught that the Holy Spirit wasguiding Mother. To doubt her was a sign that wewere lacking in trust and,even worse,guilty of thesin of pride. I shelvedmy objectionsand hoped hatone day I would understand he many things thatseemed o be contradictions.

aaa

one summer the sisters in the Romenovitiatewere given a great quantity of tomatoes. Theycouldn't give the tomatoesawaybecauseall theirneighbors had grown their own. The superiordecided hat the sisterswouldcanthe tomatoesandeat them in the winter. Vfhen Mother cameto visit

3. It seems o me a disgrace hat suchan originalpieceof coura-geouswork should have failed to find a publisher when thePopecanreceivean advanceof around$Smillion for a book hedid not write.44


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GOOD\MORKSANDHEROICVIRTUES

and saw the canned tomatoes' she was verydispleased.Missionariesof charity do not storethingsbut must rely only on God'sprovidence'

aaa

In SanFrancisco he sisterswere given use of athreestoreyconventwithmany argerooms, onghatl-ways, wOStaifCasesnd an immensebaSement. 'The sisters ost no time in disposingof the unwantedfurnishing. They removed the benches from thechapelandpulledup all the carpetingn the roomsandhallways.They pushedthick mattressesout the win-dows and removedall the sofas,chairs and curtainsfrom the premises.peoplefrom the neighborhoodstoodon the sidewalkandwatched n amazement.

The beautifully constructed house was made toconform to a way of life intendedto help the sistersbecomeholy. large sitting rooms were turned intodormitorieswhere bedswere crowded ogether. ..The heat remainedoff all winter in this exceedinglydamphouse.severalsistersgotTB during the time Ilivedthere.

aaa

In the Brorx, planswerebeingmade o establishanew home for the poor.Many of the homelessweresick and neededmore permanentaccommodationthanthat offeredby our nlght shelter.Wehadboughta argeabandoned uildingfrom the city for onedollar.A co-worker offered to be the contractor andarranged for an architect to draw up plans for the

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renovations.Government egulations equired thatan elevatorbe installedfor the use of the disabled.Mother would not allowanelevator.The city offeredto payfor the elevator. ts offer wasrefused.After allthe negotiationsand plans, he projectfor the poorwas abandonedbecausean elevator or the handi-cappedwasunacceptable.

This last anecdotemay be familiar to some readers,because he New York press (which is fanatically oyal toMother Tbresa,as are most branchesof the journalisticprofession)wrote up the incident as a caseof 'politicallycorrect'bureaucracynsistingon the rights of the disabledandnegating he efforts of the missionaries. he truth isthe exact reverse.

It might be argued hat extremesimplicity,evenprimi-tivism, s to be preferredto a luxuriousor corrupting styleof the sort that hasovertaken eligiousorders n the past.Ms Shields old herself hingslike this for years.However,she realized hat, rather than alife of ascetism,heirswasaregime of austerity, igidity, harshnessand confusion.Asmight be expected,whenthe requirementsof dogmaclashwith the needsof the poor, t is the latterwhich giveway.She was disturbed that the poor were the oneswhosuffered from the sisters' self-righteousadherence o'poverV'. She knew of immense quantitiesof money,donated n all sincerity by people from all walks of life',which lingeredunproductivelyn bank accounts,he sizeof which even many of the sisters knew nothing about.

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The sisterswere rarely allowedto spendmoney on thepoor theywere trying to help. Instead hey wereforcedtopleadpoverty, thus manipulatinggenerous,credulouspeopleand enterprisesnto giving more goods,servicesand cash.Ms Shieldsbecameuncomfortablewith thedeceit,pretenceand hypocrisy - the ancientproblem ofthe Pharisees nd he too-ostentatiousublicworshippers:

The floodof donationswasconsideredo be a signofGod'sapprovalof Mother Tbresa'scongregation.Weweretold thatwe receivedmore gifts than other reli-giouscongregations ecauseGodwaspleasedwithMother, and because he Missionariesof Charitywere the sisterswho were faithful to the true spirit ofreligious ife. Our bank accountwas already he sizeof a great fortune and increasedwith every postalservicedelivery.Around$50millionhadcollectednonecheckingaccountn the Bronx. ... Thoseof uswho worked in the office regularly understood hatwe werenot to speakaboutour work.The donationsrolled in and were deposited n the bank, but theyhadno effecton our asceticivesor on the livesof thepoorwe were trying to helP.Without an audit, it is impossible o saywith certainty

whatbecomesof MotherTbresa'shoardsof money,but itis possible o saywhat the true purposeandnatureof theorder is, andto whatendthe donationsareacceptedn thefirst place.SusanShieldsagain:

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For Mother, it wasthe spiritual well-beingof the poorthat mattered most. Material aid was a meansofreaching heir souls, of showing the poor that Godloved them. In the homes for the dying, Mothertaught the sistershow to secretly baptize hosewhowere dying. Sisterswere to ask eachperson n dan-ger of death if he wanted a'ticket to heaven'. uiaffirmative reply was to mean consent to baptism.The sisterwasthen to pretendshewas ust coolingthe person's oreheadwith a wet cloth, while in factshe wasbaptizing him, sayingquietly the necessarywords. Secrecywas important so that it would notcorne o be known that Mother Tbresa'ssisterswerebaptizingHindusandMoslems.

Thus the smallerhypocrisyconcealsa much greaterone.'Our Constitution orbadeus to beg for more than weneeded,but the money n the bank was reatedas f it didnot exist.'fuid thus the affectationof modestyand humil-ity masksboth greedand ambitiotr,not to say arrogance.

I alsohavepermission o quotefrom a letter I receivedfrom Emily kwis, a seventy-five-year-oldurse who hasworked in many of the most desperatequarters of theearth.At the time shewrote to me, shehad ust returnedfrom a very arduous stint in Rwanda(a country aboutwhich Mother Tbresa has been silent,perhapsbecausethe RomanCatholic eadership n that country wascom-plicit in the attemptedgenocideof the Tutsi people n thesummerof 1994).Ms lrewis's estimony ollows:

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My own experienceof Mother Tbresa occurredwhen shewas being honoredat the 1989 uncheonmeetingof the InternationalHealth Organization nWashington,D.C. During her acceptance peech,she spokeat length of her opposition o contracep-tion andher activities o save he unwantedproductsof heterosexualactivity.(Shealso ouchedon AIDS,sayingshe did not want to label it a scourgeof Godbut that it did seem like a just retribution forimproper sexualconduct.)Although she said thatGod could find it in his heart to forgive all sinners,sheherseHwould never allow a woman or a couplewhohadhadanabortion o adoptoneof 'her'babies.In her speechMother Tbresa requentlyreferred towhat Godwantsus to think or do.As my table-mate(an MD from Aid to International Development)remarked to me: 'Do you think it takes a certainarnountof arroganceto assume hat you have adirect ine to God'smind?'

Is it going too fat to liken Mother Teresa o someof our infamoustelevangelists, urning their audi-enceson to what is in God'sheart and mind whileencouragingandacceptingall donations?The rich world likes andwishes to believethat some-

one,somewhere,s doingsomething or theThird World.For this reason, t doesnot inquire too closely nto themotivesor practicesof anyonewho fulfills, howevervicari-ously, his mandate.The greatwhite hopemeets he great

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black hole; the mission to the heathenblendswith thecomforting myth of Florence Nightingale. As ever, thetrue addressof the missionary s to the self-satisfactionfthe sponsorand the donor,and not to the needsof thedowntrodden.Helpless nfants,abandoned erelicts, epers and the terminally ill are the raw material fordemonstrations f compassion. hey are n no position ocomplain,andtheir passivityandabjections consideredasterling trait. It is time to recognize hat the world's lead-ing exponent of this false consolation is herself ademagogue,or obscurantistand a servant of earthlypowers.

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II

/T\ h" Catholic Church is a limitless sourceof fascina-I -tion, to believers as well as to doubters and

unbelievers,becauseof its attitude toward sex and pro-creation. ts official dogmas,derived n the main from StPaulbut elaborated ownthe centuries, orbid clergy rombeing married and prohibit women from being clergy.Homosexualacts arecondemned,?s n a way are homo-sexualpersons.Heterosexualacts taking place outsidethe bond of lawful matrimony are condemned,whetherpremaritalor extramarital.The sexualactwithin marriageis frownedupon unless t has reproductionas its object.Solitary sex is taboo.The preaching of such a range ofprohibitions,and ts enforcementby maleandfemaleceli-bates,hasbeen he fertile soil for innumerable eflections,autobiographiesand polemics rom the Confessionsf StAugustine to Mary McCarthy's Memoirsof a CatholicGirlhood.

Reverenceor life, especiallyn its vulnerableconditionin u,tero,s a s'i,neua nzn of Catholic eaching,and onewhich possessesa great moral strength even in its

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extreme forms. A woman experiencingdanger in child-birth, for example,s supposed o sacrificeher own ife forthat of the child. (Judaism,which hascodesno lessethi-cal,tends o mandatehe oppositedecision,or the greatergood of the family.) When mass rapes occurred in thecourse of aggressivewar in Bangladesh and later inBosnia,MotherTbresa n the first caseand he Pope n thesecondmade strenuousappealso thevictims not to abortthe seedof the invader and the violator. Give he child upfor adoption,or raise t in a spirit unlike the one n whichit wasconceived this wasthe injunction.While it canbeseenasgrotesque o lecture womenwho are in such des-perate dilemmas, there is none the less somethingimpressiveandnoble n the high priority the Churchgivesto potential life. Humaos, t says,blasphemewhen theythrow away a foetus, because hey cannot assume heright to disposeof another's ife and they cannotpresumeto know the future. Children born with appallingdeformi-ties in sordid and overcrowdedhomeshavebeenknowntime and again, after all, to defy all material odds andbecomeexemplary,or merely human.

But the nobility of this essential eaching s compro-mised by the fact that it dependson an unnecessarytheologicalassumptionabout ensoulment' the point atwhich Thomas Aquinas maintained hat a life becamehuman and mmortal.Two objectionscanbe made here,the first beingthat human ife can andshould be respectedwhether or not it is constituted by a creator with animmortal soul; o make the onepositiondependentupon

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the other is to make the respect n someway contingent.Second,f afertilizedegg is fully human, hen all termina-tions of pregnancyat any stageandfor any reasonare tobe regardedasmurder.This offendsagainst he naturalorinstinctive eeling n favour of the pregnantwomanand theoccupantof her womb, because t blurs the distinctionbetweenan embryonic group of cellsanda humanwith acentral nervous system.The distinction betweenabor-tions in the first andthird trimesters,a distinctionwhichspeaksboth to our ability to avoid casuistry and to ourinborn wish to have a say in our own fates, s thereforenull andvoid in Catholic eaching.Someof the coarseningin argUmentson the other side of the case- argumentswhich bluntly and unscientificallydefine the foetus as amere appendix o the woman'sbody - no doubt resultfrom confrontationwith this absolutistedict.

Then there is the factthat Catholicprohibition on abor-tion comes ndissolubly inked to a prohibition on birthcontrol and contraception.Again, more is involvedthanthe technicaland dogmaticfinding that certain forms ofcontraception,such as someversions of the intrauterinedevicewhich expelsfertili zed ova,actually are abortifa-cient in the fundarnentalistdefinition of the term: the banextends o all meansandmethodsof avoidingconception,and ndeed o the very intentionof doingso. t is as natu-ral' in humans to seek control over their biologicalfecundityas t is for them to wish to have children in thefirst place.The RomanCatholic Church standsalone incondemning the desire to remove oneself from the

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THE MISSIONARY POSITIONcapricesof nature andevolutior, andthe RomanCatholicChurchhasgreatpoliticalpowerovermillions of poor andfertile people.

The Church's eachingseems o denyanyconnectionatall between he rapid exponentialgrowth in human popu-lationand the spreadandpersistenceof disease,amine,squalor, gnoranceandenvironmentalcalamity.Oneneednot be afollower of the grim ReverendMalthus to deducethat there is indeedsuchaconnectionand that,moreove'it works in the other directionaswell. In everydevelopingcounty that has been studied,a clear correlationcan befound betweenthe limitation of family size and the lifechancesof the family members. dlheresuch measurescannotbe freely taken,by meansof educationandexam-ple, they have been enforced in desperation byauthoritarianregimes.We havebeforeus the forbiddingexampleof the People'sRepublicof China,which limitsfamilies to one child apieceand is thus, in the name ofCommunism,Preparinga future in which the words'brother'and sister'will haveno literalmeaning.And wehave he instanceof Mother Teresa's riend andadmirerIndira Gandhi,who launcheda demagogicand brutal

attempt o bring aboutmalesterili zationbyacombinationof bullying and bribery. (SalmanRushdie'sshort story'The FreeRadio'inEast,Westbrilliantly hows he pathosandemptinessof this effort.) Certainly hese arenotkindsolutions'but they evidence he severity of a problemwhich the Churchhaschosenentirelyto ignore.Over the past decadS, nd particularly since the54


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Seconcl aticanCouncil, he RomanCatholicChurchhasbeen facedwith nearly every sort of cultural, doctrinaland political dissent. n Iatin America,where it facesanunprecedented hallenge rom evangelicalProtestantismand rom the populistchallengeof so-calledliberation heology', the need to renew the priesthood has led toquestioningof the celibacyrequirement. In the UnitedStatesandWesternEurope, he congregationappearsoconduct ts affairswithout reference o canonicaleachingon birth control.Homosexualgroupshavepetitioned orthe right to be consideredrue Catholics, ince f Goddidnot create heir condition here seems o be an nterestingquestionas o who did.EvenprominentCatholicwriters ofthe conservativewing, suchasWilliam BuckleyandClareBoothLuce,havemade he obviouspoint that anunyield-ing opposition o contraception,andthe ranking of it asasin more or lessequivalent o abortion, s, amongotherthings, a cheapeningof the moral positionon abortionitself.

In all of these debates, he most consistently eac-tionary figure has been Mother Teresa. Thefundamentalist action within the Vaticanhas found heruseful n two ways first asan advertisementor the goodworks of the Church to non-Catholics; nd secondas apotent instrument of moral suasionwithin the ranks ofthe existing faithful. She has missedno opportunity torestateelementarydogmas (much as she once told aninterviewer that, if facedwith a choice between Galileoandthe authority of the Inquisition, shewould havesided

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N


with the Church authorities).She has inveighedagainstabortiotr,againstcontraceptionand against he ideathatthere should be any limit whatsoever o the growth ofworld population.aWhenMotherTbresawasawarded he NobelPeacePnzein 1979,ew peoplehadthepoortaste o ask whatshe hadeverdone,or evenclaimed o do, for the causeof peace.Her address o the ceremonyof investituredid little toresolveany doubt on this scoreandmuch to increase t.Shebegan he speechwith a literal-minded ccountof themyth of Christ'sconception,perhaps n honour of thatday's festal character:the Feast of the ImmaculateConception. hen shebeganher diatribe:

I was amazedwhen I learned that in the West somany young peopleare on drugs. I tried to under-stand the reason for this. Why? The answer is,'because n the family there is nobodywho caresaboutthem'. F'athersand mothersare so busy theyhaveno time.Youngparentswork, and he child lives

4. In the courseof preparing or the L994united NationsWorldPopulationConferencen Cairo, the Vaticanwent so far as tomake a temporary alliancewith those forces of Shi'a Islam,chiefly representedby the mullahs of lran, which denouncedpopulationcontrol as an imperialist conspiracy.The appleofdogmahad,at least n this case, allensomedistance rom thetree of proselytizationandthe crusades.56


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in the street and goes his own way. We speak ofpeace.These are the things that threatenpeace.think that todaypeaces threatened y abortion, oo,which is a true war,the direct killing of a child by itsown mother. In the Bible we read that God clearlysaid: Eventhough a mother did forget her infant, Iwill not forgethim.'

Today,abortion is the worst evil, and the greatestenemyof peace.Wewho arehere todaywerewantedby our parents.We would not be here if our parentshadnot wantedus.We want childrr, and we love them. But whatabout he othermillions?Many areconcernedaboutthe children, like those in Africa, who die in greatnumberseither from hunger or for other reasons.But millions of children die intentionally,by the willof their mothers.Because f a mother can kill herown child, what will prevent us from killing our-selves,or one another?Nothing.

There is not much necessity or identifyrngthe fallaciesand distortionswhich are piled upon one anotherhere.Fewwomenwho havehad abortions,even hosewho stillfeel remorseor regret, will recognize hemselvesashav-ing committedactual nfanticide. f there are 'millions' ofchildren being slain in this way,so that they compare othe millions of children dying of malnutrition and pesti-lence, hen there is clearlyno hopefor Mother Teresa'sadoptionsolution. Sheclaims o haverescuedonly three

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or four dozen orphans from the entire Bangladeshcalamity,for example.) Moreover, these impressive fig-uresshouldbe enoughat east o impelreconsiderationnthose who proclaim that all pregnanciesare 'wanted'bydefinitionandthat there canbe no excesspopulation.At a vast open-air mass in Knock, Ireland, in lggz,Mother Tbresamade.t plain yet again that there is noconnectionat all in her mind between he conditionsofpovertyandmisery that she combats'and he inabilityofthe very poor to reach the plateauon which limitation offamily sizebecomesarationalchoice.Addressingacrowdof the devout,she said, I-et us promise our tady wholoves relandsomuch thatwe will neverallow n this coun-try a singleabortion.And no contraceptives.'In this instance,she fell into the last great fallacyandoffence o which Churchteachingon this subject s pro1e.Ireland is now, to a great extent, a secular society. t isalsoa societywhich hasto seekan accommodationwithits hugeProtestant-majority rovince.The Church claimsthe right to make aw, n stateswhere it is strongenough,for believers and unbelieversalike. Mother Tbresa's'pacific' humanitarianismand charity therefore translate

directly into an injunction to the faithful to breedwithouthindrance,anadmonishmento the rest to live under awsnot madeby them, and an attack on the idea of a non-sectarianstate.What this does for the causeof peacedoesnot, n Ireland, ake ong to estimate.What it does orsuffering humanity is to crimin alize,or at least to rationand restrict, one of the few meansever devised or its58


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self-emancipation.t is oftensaid, nsidethe Church andout of it, that there s somethinggrotesqueabout ectureson the sexual life when delivered by those who haveshunned t. Given he waythat the Churchforbidswomento preach, his point s usualh madeaboutmen.But givenhow much this Churchallows he fanaticalMother Tbresato preach, t might be added hat the call to go forth andmultiply, and to take no thought for the morroW soundsgrotesquewhen uttered by an elderly virgin whosechiefclaim to reverence s that she ministers to the inevitablelosers n this very lotterY.

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ilI

J n her reputation-making interview with MalcolmI uuggeridge during something Beauttfut for God,,Mother Tbresamade he following largeclaim:

we have o do God'swill in everything.we also akea specialvow which other congregationsdon't take;that of giving wholehearted ree serviceto the poor.This vow meansthat we cannotwork for the rich;neithercanwe acceptanymoney or the work we do.ours hasto be a free service,andto the poor.

For the many ethical humanists,os well as for the manyvaguelyreligious peoplewho support or endorsewhatthey imagineto be Mother Tbresa'smission, he abovestatements quite an important one. t seems o spare heMissionariesof Charity from the worldlinessand finan-cial cunningwhich haveso disfiguredChristianity n thepast.And it insists hat no service s furnished o the rich -a claimwhich might leadthe unwary to conclude hat nocontributionsare solicited rom them.60


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In point of fact, the Missionariesof Charity have fordecades een he recipientsof the extraordinaryargesseof governments,arge foundations, orporationsandpri-vate citizefls.The affectation of poverty, which is soaffractive o some observers,has obscuredthis relativeplenty.And so has another affectation one very wellknownto missionary und-raisers own hrough theyears.In this story,which has becomesolemnized y repetitionat a thousandtent meetiogs, he necessarydonationarrives ust at the momentwhenthe need or it is greatest.Was a consignmentof blankets he pressingneed,with ahard winter coming on?Sure enough,an anonymousbenefactorchosethat very night to leavea truckload ofblanketson the doorstepof the mission.Dr Lush Gjergjigivesan especially ouching exampleof the genre in hisbook,an exampleno less ouchingfor its beingwritten asif the notionhadneverbeen ried out in print before:

One day Sister Francs, from the city of Agra,phonedMother Tbresaasking or urgenthelp.

'Mother, need50,000upees.Overherethere sa crying and urgent need to start a house for thechildren.'

Mother Teresareplied: That is too much, mydaughter, will call you back; for the moment wehavenothing ... ' A short time laterthe phonerangagain. t was apressagency.MotherTresa? his isthe editor of the agency.The Philippinegovernmenthas ust awardedyou the MagsaysayPrize.Hearffelt

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compliments!t involvesa considerable um.'Mother Tbresa: Thanksfor lettingme know.'The editor: 'What do you plan on doing with the50,000 upeesfrom the prize?'MotherTeresa:Mhatdidyou say? 0,000upees?I think the tnrd wantsus to build ahome or children

atA,gra.'As her televisionreputation spread,Mother TeresafoundherseHacceptingmore andmoreawardsandbene-factions.The Indian government investedher with thePnze of the Miraculous [.otus. In I97L the Vaticangaveher the JohnKIII Prize or Peace Dr Gjergjihastens oinform us that on this occasion the prizewinner herselfhad come o the Vaticanon the city bus,andwaswearingher Indian sari,worth aboutone dollar'.If true, this wasostentatiousof her.) In Boston in the sameyear sheaccepted he 'Good Samaritan'award,againwith manywordsof seH-deprecation.hen straightto Washington,oreceive he John n Kennedyawardon 16 October.Thenext year,withthe auction n full swing, he governmentofIndia improved on its relatively lowly Miraculous tntus

prize andgaveher a larger one, in a ceremonyat whichIndira Gandhipubliclywept.In Lg73t wasPrincePhilip'sturn to make an emotionaldemonstration,which he didwhile presenting he TbmpletonPrize'for the promotionof faith in theworld'. In the presenceof hiswife,who holdsthe title of 'Defenderof the Faith' againstall the works ofRome and who heads a family which is barred from62


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making a marriage to a RomanCatholic,the royal con-sort handedover f,,34,000.he United NationsFood andAgriculture Organizationwentone better two years aterby striking a specialmedalwith the goddessCeresbran-dishing a stalk of wheat at Mother Tbresa and, on theobverse, he inscription 'Food For All: Holy Year L975'.Revenue from the sale of the medals went to theMissionariesof Charity. t was only a stepup from this tothe Albert Schweitzer Prize, and then to yet anotherrecognitionfrom the Indian government- this time anhonorary degreepresentedby Indira Gandhiherself.(The future patronessof compulsory sterili zationhadbecome, n the meantime, head of the government.) nMarch L979,the nternationalBalzanPrize,wortha quar-ter of amillion lire, waspresentedby the presidentof Italy.The Pope,by then John Paul II, took the opportunity ofher visit to receiveher in private audience.All thingsthereby pressed oward the ultimate event of the pruze'giving machine,which was to make Mother Tbresa theNobel laureate for Peaceand to investher with the prizeand he cheque n DecemberL979.

Nobodyhas roubled o totalthe amountof prrzemoneyreceived rom governmentsandquasi-government rgani-zationsby the Missionariesof Charity,and nobody hasever askedwhat becameof the funds. It is safe to say,however, hat if all the moneyhad beenusedon one pro-ject it would havebeenpossible,say, o give Calcutta hefinest teaching hospital in the entire Third World. Thatsuch s neither Mother Tbresa's ntentionnor her desire

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may be inferred from the Muggeridge incident. It mayalsobe inferred from her preference or spreading hemoney hin and or devoting t to religiousandmissionarywork rather thanthe sustained elief of deprivation.n anyevent, f she is claiming that the order doesnot solicitmoney rom the rich andpowerful,or accept t from them,this is easilyshown o be false.The apologistsgenerallyclaimthat Mother Teresa s tooinnocent o countmoneyor to takethe measureof thosewho offer it, or to reckon that they obtainsomebenefitfrom their supposedgenerosity n the form of virtue-by-association. orgetting for a momenther boast hat shedoesnot accepteye-of-the-needleubventionsn the firstplace,we might agree that this argument had merit inthe caseof the late Robert Marwell. Mr Maxwell inveig-led a not-unwilling Mother Tbresa into a fund-raisingscheme un by his newspapergroup, andthen, it seems(havinggot her to join him in someremarkablepublicityphotographs),he madeoff with the money.But Maxrvelldid succeed in fooling some very experiencedandunsentimentalpeople n his day,andalthough t might beaskedhow Mother Tbresahad time to spare or such awicked and greedyman, it can still be arguedwith somedegreeof plausibility hat shewasa blameless arty to hiscynicalmanipulations.

However,tis difficult, if not impossible,o assert his inthe caseof Mr CharlesKeating.Keating s now serving aten-yearsentence or his part in the Savingsand Loan64


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GooDwoRKSANDHEROICVIRTUES

scandal undoubtedly one of the greatest frauds inAmericanhistory. In the early 1980s, uring the booming,deregulated earsof Reagan'sirst term, Keating,?rlongotheroperators,mounteda sustainedandcriminal assaulton the depositsof America'ssmall nvestors.His methodswerethoseof the falseprospectusand he politicalbribe.(Washington ernacularstill contains he expression theKeatingFive', n honour of the five United Statessenatorswho did him favourswhile receivingvastcampaigndona-tions in the form of other people'smoney.)Keatinghadpolitical ambitions as well as financial ones, and as aconservativeCatholic undamentalisthad servedRichardNixon as a member of a much-mockedcommission oinvestigate he ill effectsof pornography.

At the height of his successas a thief, Keatingmadedonations (not out of his own pocket, of course) toMother Teresa n the sum of one and a quarter milliondollars.He alsograntedher the use of his private et. Inreturn, Mother TeresaallowedKeating to make use ofher prestigeon severalmpor tantoccasionsandgavehima personalized, rucifix which he took everywhere withhim.In LggZ,after a series of political and financial crisesandthe mostexpensivebailoutoperation n the history ofthe American try-payer, Keating was finally brought totrial. He appearedbefore the Superior Court in LosAngeles(his LincolnSavingsandLoan'hadbeena argelyCalifornianoperation)where he was heard by the later-notoriousJudge ance Ito. The trial could haveonly one

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outcome:hemarimum sentence llowable nderCalifornialaw.During the courseof the trial, Mother Tbresawrote tothe court seekingclemency or Mr Keating.Shegavenoexplanationof her original nvolvementwith the defendantand offeredno direct testimonymitigatinghis looting ofthe thrift industry.The letter, n its original form, 4pparsopposite.

One s struck immediatelyby two things.First,thoughtheclaim about 'free service to the poorestof the poor' ismade in almost the same words as it was made toMuggeridge, the related claim that the rich receivenoquidpro quo seems o havedisappeared.hen there s theastonishingartlessnessof the letter, both as composedand as presented.One might think it a missive rom aninnocentold womanwho knows nothing of cupidityandscandal,andwho naivelywishes o intercede or reasonsof rather woolly compassion.The transcript of MotherTbresa'shighly ideologicalNobel Pnzespeech,or exam-ple,doesnot read ike this. It is professionallymitten andpresented.And many of her other public interventionsdemonstratea much sharpersenseof the realworld, evenwhen Mother Teresa s choosing o speakon mattersnsuchassexualityandreproduction,where shemust nec-essarilyadmitto beingdisqualifiedby inexperience.The suspicion hat there might be somethingaux naifabout he appealoccurredalso o Mr paulTurley who, inhis capacityasDeputyDistrict Attorney for LosAngeles,

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Ilooorabla Lanrce ItoSuperlor Court2lO t{est Teqrle StreetDcpt . 123, 13th f loorIoa Angeleg, Cal i f . 90012

F'ru,qFTJAN y l i ;z t4t f q,Dear l lonorable Lance lto,

hle do not mlr up in Buetaess or Poli t icts orcour ts. Q1rr work, 615 l{ lss ionar ies of Char lty is to g lvesbolehearted and free gervice to ttre poorest of th e poor'

I do not know anything about Mr. Char les Keatlng'swork or his business or the matters you are dealing with'

I only know that he has alway been klnd an dgeneroust to God's Poor,a;rd always ready to help-wlreteeverthere was a need. I t is for this reagon that I do not wantto forget him now whi le he and his fani ly are suffer ing'.lesus f,aa told us "Whatever yo u do to the least of nt rUietfrern.. .YOU DID IT TO !tE, l '1r . Keating has done much tohelp the poor, which ls why I a 'n wrlt lng to you on htsbehal f .tdhenever soneone asks me to speak to a jud'ge' I

always tel l thes the aane thing. I ask them to pray, to lookinto thier heart, altd to do shat JesuS would do in that 'c i rcr :mstance. And this is what I an asking of you' yourHonor.Hy grat i tude to You iswork, your fani lY and the PeoPle ;I.fl':ilff :I #:'*#i'I;l'

fr*t lf"*+ f t -l etznh-- *G-,/4,

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wasMr Keating'sco-prosecutor.On his own nitiative,andas a private citizen,he wrote and despatcheda carefulreply. reproduce t below or the first time:DearMotherTbresa:

I am a Deputy District Attorney in Los AngelesCountyand one of the personswho worked on theprosecutionof your benefactor,CharlesH. Keating,Jr.I readyour lefferto Judge to, wriffen onbehaHofMr. Keating,which includesyour admission hatyouknow nothing about Mr. Keating'sbusinessor thecriminalchargespresentedoJudge to. I am writingto you to providea brief explanationof the crimesofwhich Mr. Keatinghasbeenconvicted,o giveyou anunderstandingof the sourceof the money that Mr.Keatinggave o you,andto suggest hatyou performthe moral and ethical act of returning the moneytoits righftl owners.

Mr. Keatingwas convictedof defrauding17 ndi-vidualsof more than $900,000. hese lT personswererepresentativeof" 7000 ndividuals rom whomMr. Keating stole $2s2,000,000. r. Keating'sspe-cific acts of fraud were that he was the sourceof aseriesof fraudulent epresentationsmade o personswho bought bonds from his companyand he alsowas the repository of crucial informationwhich hechoseto withhold from bond purchasers, herebyluring his victims into believingthey were making asafe, ow-risk investment. n truth and in fact, their

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moneywasbeingused o fund Mr. Keating'sexorbi-tant andextravagantifestyle.The victims of Mr. Keating's fraud come from a

wide spectrum of society.Somewere wealthy andwell-educated.Most were peopleof modestmeansandunfamiliarwith high finance.Onewas, ndeed,npoor carpenterwho did not speakEnglish and hadhis life savingsstolenby Mr. Keating's raud.

The biblical slogan of your organization s 'Aslong asyou did it to oneof theseMy leastbrethren.You did it to Me'. The 'least' of the brethren areamong those whom Mr. Keating fleeced withoutflinching. As you well know, divine forgiveness savailableo all, but forgivenessmust be precededby admissionof sin.Not onlyhasMr. Keating ailedto admithis sinsand his crimes,he persists n self-righteouslyblaming others for his own misdeeds.Your experience s, admirably,with the poor. Myexperiencehasbeenwith the 'con'man and he per-petrator of the fraud. It is not uncommonfor 'con'men to be generouswith family,friends and chari-ties.Perhaps hey believe hat their generositywillpurchaseove,respector forgiveness.However, hetime when the purchaseof indulgences'was anacceptablemethodof seeking orgivenessdiedwiththe Reformation.No church, no chariLy,no organi-zationshouldallow itself to be usedas salve or theconscienceof the criminal. We all are grateful thatforgiveness is availablebut we all, also, must

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perform our duty.That includes he Judgeand theJury. I remind myseHof the biblical admonitionofthe ProphetMicah: 'o man,what is good and whatdoes the Lord require of you. To do justice, lovemercy and walk humbly.'

we are urged to love mercy but we must dojustice.You urge JudgeIto to look into his heart - ashesentencesCharlesKeating and do what Jesuswould do. I submit the samechallenge o you. Ask

yourseHwhat Jesuswould do if he were given thefruits of a crime;whatJesuswould do if he were inpossession f money that had been stolen;whatJesuswould do if he were being exploitedby a thiefto easehis conscience?

I submitthatJesuswouldpromptlyandunhesitat-ingly return the stolen prope ty to its rightfulowners.You should do the same.You have beengiven moneyby Mr. Keatingthat

the missionary position - mother teresa in theory practice

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