This is a response to an opinion column that was written by Ben Crawford, published on Feb. 25, 2015, entitled “Mother Teresa undeserving of mother title.”
I am responding to your claim Mother — excuse me — Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (now Kolkata) is not worthy of her title.
Before I begin, do you know how someone earns the title of “Blessed”? Essentially, someone has to be extremely good and uphold the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is a step below a saint.
The first thing you attack is the Home for the Dying that was set up in India. Let’s be clear that India is not known for its first class health care; people die in the streets every single day from diseases and other inflictions. Missionaries like Blessed Teresa go to countries like India to try to help, and that’s what she did. Could she heal everyone who walked through the doors? No, just because she was Catholic doesn’t mean she could heal everyone. “The Home did not claim to offer primary medical care, but was a refuge for the dying, with nowhere else to go," argued the The New York Review of Books.
I am also a little troubled about your first source, the blogger who claims to have experienced these “horrors.” I read the same article you read, and the guy is a “Wandering Nomad,” meaning he is not accustomed to life in India and was not prepared for everything. Again, the house is not a hospital, not everyone there is a trained doctor, and some people are too sick and are going to die.
You also attack her beliefs on birth control, abortion and divorce. Well, here is something that may be surprising: Blessed Teresa was an old school Catholic, meaning Catholics back in her day did not believe in birth control or divorce and, you guessed it, abortion.
Many Catholics still believe this today, and here is why: Jesus talked about how life was a gift from God and to deny it is a mortal sin, which is why most Catholics do not use birth control or have abortions. Christ also says bluntly that there is no divorce.
Blessed Teresa wasn’t concerned about what was right in a political or social stance, but what was right in the eyes of God, for that is who she dedicated her life to and to live as Christ did.
Not everyone’s perfect, not even saints or the Blessed, but they do way more good than bad, which is how they obtain those titles. Nitpicking isn’t journalism — it’s slander.
Derrick Chariker, fourth-year English student