this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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chapotraphouse
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After she blew up and gained international prominence and again when the church began the canonization process, people looked into the conditions in the houses of the poor and what they found wasn't great - treatments administered before the diagnostics were done, lack of painkillers stronger than aspirin, untrained nuns doing medical work, inconsistent sanitation and hygiene. Conditions didn't really start improving until after her death, by which point her order had amassed hundreds of millions in donations, some of which were used to open up facilities elsewhere but most of which ended up unaccounted for and likely ended up being absorbed by the Catholic Church. A lot of the criticism out there comes from Christopher Hitchens, who defenders argue had a chip on his shoulder and twisted the facts, and Hindu nationalists, who argue that she was engaged in forced conversions, but even her softer critics describe someone who was fundamentally well intentioned but who ended up with a twisted worldview as a result of her religion:
CW slight ableism:
spoiler
Mother Teresa was, without question, the most dedicated, self-sacrificing person I’ve ever known, but not one of the wisest. Mother Teresa wasn’t interested in providing optimal care for the sick and the dying, but in serving Jesus, whom she believed accepted every act of kindness offered the poor. She had her own doubts and feelings of abandonment by God, but her spiritual directors urged her to interpret these “torments of soul” as signs that she had come so close to God that she shared Jesus’ passion on the cross. Under the sway of such spin, Mother Teresa came to glorify suffering. This resulted in a rather schizophrenic mindset by which Mother Teresa believed both that she was sent to minister to the poor AND that suffering should be embraced as a good in itself. Mother Teresa often told the sick and dying, “Suffering is the kiss of Jesus.” Mother Teresa’s sisters offer simple care and a smile, not competent medical treatment or tools with which to escape poverty. One could argue that Mother Teresa’s faith both facilitated and tragically limited her work. With the enormous resources at her disposal, Mother Teresa could have done more, but she always saw helping the poor as a means to a supernatural end, never a good in itself.I personally trend more toward the opinion that she should have known better and her presence in Calcutta did substantial harm, but, even if you disagree, the amount of good she did was severely limited by an ideology that praised intentions over outcomes and didn't require her to inform herself or incorporate the improvements that were happening in the secular medical field while she was active.