Did Mother Teresa have any flaws?

Answer 1

A:

We all have flaws, and Mother Teresa was no different. One of her flaws was misplaced loyalty, which would result in great harm and suffering to the victims of a paedophile priest. Documents said to have been obtained by SF Weekly suggest that Mother Teresa knew one of her favourite priests, Donald McGuire, was removed from ministry for sexually abusing a Bay Area boy in 1993. Her first duty and compassionate urge should have been to inform the authorities so that justice could be done for the child. Yet Mother Teresa actually urged that Father McGuire be returned to active ministry as soon as possible. Eight additional complaints were lodged against him in the coming years by various families, leading to his eventual arrest on sex-abuse charges in 2005. In some jurisdictions, Mother Teresa's actions might have constituted a serious crime, but they were at the very least evidence of a serious character flaw.

Catholic Answer:

The story was made public by the San Francisco Weekly in January of 2013 with a suitably sensational title "Tainted Saint," the San Francisco Weekly suggested that the scandal might damage the reputation of the beloved Mother Teresa, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003. The Weeklystretches the available evidence well beyond the breaking point. At worst, Blessed Mother Teresa was guilty of misjudging a priest: a mistake that many others made, regarding the same abusive cleric. The Weekly is more of a typical tabloid which thrives on sensation stories and half truths.

To place that letter from Mother Teresa in the proper context it is important to keep two crucial factors in mind. First, although she mentions the "scandal touching the priesthood in the U.S.A." she was writing in 1994, long before the sex-abuse scandal had reached its zenith, at a time when it was still unthinkable that bishops and religious superiors would have ignored clear evidence of abuse. Second, there is no reason to believe that Mother Teresa was presented with any solid evidence whatsoever to back up the charges against McGuire. On the contrary, she seems to have heard about the charges only from McGuire himself and from Father John Hardon, also a Jesuit priest, who was convinced that McGuire was innocent. She no doubt assumed that the hearsay evidence mentioned by these two priests was the only evidence available. Father Hardon also has a case for beatification pending in the Vatican at this time and it, too, is being threatened by these allegations.

Thus in all likelihood, Mother Teresa was told that McGuire had been charged with abuse, but assured-by two priests she trusted-that the charges were false. She was apparently told that he had foolishly left himself open to charges, and she wrote to the Jesuit provincial that McGuire had "admitted imprudence in his behavior." She believed that he was innocent, and she said so. Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 well before the sordid details of Father McGuire's case were made public. Of course, dead nuns cannot defend themselves. Mother Teresa becomes yet another victim of Father McGuire.