Who criticized Blessed Teresa?

Answer 1

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, is one of the most revered religious figures of the past century. She seems to have required absolute, blind obedience from the nuns in her charge, but a more serious complaint seems to be her lack of concern for their own health and well-being.

Collete Livermore, a former nun in Mother Teresa's order, The Missionaries of Charity, said that though the order had sufficient money donated to it for the purpose of buying books to help with the medical work this was not done and as a result, the health of the sisters was at risk. The nuns were not provided with medical advice, mosquito repellents or any information about malaria and vaccinations. The idea was that God would look after the nuns, but the result was that their health suffered. Christopher Hitchens says that the money donated to help the poor and for Mother Teresa's hospices was instead used to open new convents and to undertake missionary work.

The Lancet and the British Medical Journal criticised the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis. Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, says that the role of a hospice is to minimise suffering with professional medical care and attention to expressed needs and wishes of the patient, but Mother Teresa's approach does not.

Wikipedia lists many other criticisms of Mother Teresa.

Answer 2

Most people have nothing but love and respect for Mother Teresa. As with any person of celebrity status, she has her detractors, most of them quite anti-Catholic who dig up half truths and, in many cases, pure fabrications to denigrate her and her work. Many say she did little to help the suffering in the way of providing medications to alleviate their pain. Mother Teresa was not in the business of providing medical care, she made that clear. Her work was to give the dying some comfort and a death with dignity and surrounded by people who loved them. She was not a doctor and could not provide drugs, even if they had been available. India strictly controls all pain medications so that even registered hospitals find them difficult to obtain.

Others claim she went to bat for a priest friend who was abusing boys. Mother Teresa did nothing more that write a letter of support for the man based on information she had received from the person who investigated the case. It was not until long after Mother Teresa's death that the sordid details of the case were discovered.

Some accuse her of being more interested in making Catholic converts that in helping the poor. Mother Teresa had no intentions of evangelizing as she wanted to concentrate her efforts on helping the poorest of the poor. However, Pope John Paul II ordered that she also must evangelize. Having taken a vow of obedience, Mother had no choice but to comply.

There are allegations that she was friends with gangsters and dictators but these charges are not backed up with a single shred of evidence. Of course, if it is on the internet it has to be true, right? It is just another part of the disinformation campaign to discredit a great saint. Others claim that, while she ignored the suffering of the poor, she sought the best of medical treatment for herself in foreign countries. It just happens that when Mother Teresa suffered a medical emergency, she was traveling abroad. One heart attack occurred while she was visiting the Holy Father in Rome. Another occurred when she was seriously injured in a fall while visiting Mexico. What was she to tell her hosts? "Don't treat me here, put me back on a plane to India so I can receive treatment there." There are many more lies out there.

All a person need do is a small bit of research to get at the truth. Even when Mother Teresa was accused of many of these things while she was alive, she would simply shrug and ignore them. She live the beatitudes and one of them states:

"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Answer 3

Christopher Hitchens did. But, Christopher Hitchens criticized all religious figures, including the Dalai Lama.