(CBS) In life, Mother Teresa was an icon — for believers — of God’s work on Earth. Her ministry to the poor of Calcutta was a world-renowned symbol of religious compassion.

But now, it has emerged that Mother Teresa was so doubtful of her own faith that she feared being a hypocrite

In a new book that compiles letters she wrote to friends, superiors and confessors, her doubts are obvious.

According to her letters, Mother Teresa died with her doubts. She had even stopped praying, she once said.



  1. bobbo says:

    58–William==would you fight FOR or AGAINST sound family planning for the poor around the world–to include teaching concepts of choice backedup with availability of birth control, condoms, abortion, generously funded state supported orphanages and adoption services??

    Or, like MT would you reject some of this in favor of that which does not address the problem of overpopulation?

  2. Milo says:

    60: “Slaps forehead.”

  3. Jägermeister says:

    #58 – william Brown

    Missionaries don’t do deeds without a motive. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu went to India to convert people to Christianity, and as such an asshole yourself, you ought to have been well indoctrinated to understand that this was the main mission. It’s good that you smiled at them as they suffered, just so that you and Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu could bring them closer to Jesus.

  4. Jägermeister says:

    #61 – bobbo

    Very good points!

  5. MikeN says:

    >extremely poor, uneducated, and living in a third world country.

    Yeah, can’t have too many brown, black, and yellow babies now can we?

  6. Skppy says:

    #65 let me translate:

    extremely poor = unable to take care of a child
    uneducated = unable to make the right decisions about contraception
    in a third world country = no access to social programs, medical facilities, counselling services, etc

    Sum total: these are still the worst people in the world to limit access to birth control services. It has nothing to do with race. You however, have made it about race. Congratulations.

  7. Mike Voice says:

    58 A sign in the mission directed us to only take in a dying person if no other agency would.

    Why?

    Why not take in anyone who was dying?

    If her mission had attracted your attention – I assume you didn’t live in Calcutta before working in her mission – and the attention of others, worldwide? if donations were pouring-in from all over the globe… why turn anyone away?

    Why not use the donations for the express purpose of which they were intended… expanding her mission to the maximum extent possible?

    Why is a candidate for Sainthood given a pass on the kinds of financial review that any other charity would be subjected to?

    I doubt she was handling the finances personally, so why are all the behind-the-scenes money-handlers shielded from review by her aura of beatitude?

  8. Jim W. says:

    Another hero besmirched after their death. sad,sad,sad.

    and Skippy, the reasons you list are exactly why they don’t have “birth control services” in the first place. They are poor and uneducated.

    So why not teach them something that requires little money and no expertise to preform? Like abstinence for instance. Or does that make too much sense?

  9. MIT says:

    All those who said negative rthings about Mother Teresa are worthless liberls jerks and
    worhless nerds to humanity

  10. Skippy says:

    #68:

    “the reasons you list are exactly why they don’t have “birth control services” in the first place. They are poor and uneducated.”

    Yes, that’s why they need birth control services, because they are poor and uneducated. MT could have provided these services, but she didn’t.

    “So why not teach them something that requires little money and no expertise to preform? Like abstinence for instance. Or does that make too much sense?”

    Numerous studies have shown that abstinence programs simply don’t work. For example:

    http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/abstinencereport.asp

  11. Jägermeister says:

    #68 – Jim W. – Another hero besmirched after their death. sad,sad,sad.

    So when the image of a person turns out to be flawed after the person is gone, you shouldn’t be able to criticize that person?! Well, I’ll be damned… The people of the former Soviet states should look back at Stalin and remember him for all the good deeds he did, not for the millions he had killed etc. And every German family should have a portrait of Hitler in their living room just to honor his great deeds. After all, he killed off unemployment, rearmed and brought pride to the German people, right?!

    Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was a bitch who loved to see people suffer in order to bring them to closer to her invisible friend’s dead “son”.

  12. Jägermeister says:

    #69 – MIT

    GFY

  13. Skippy says:

    #68:

    “the reasons you list are exactly why they don’t have “birth control services” in the first place. They are poor and uneducated.”

    Yes, that’s why they need birth control services, because they are poor and uneducated. MT could have provided these services, but she didn’t.

    “So why not teach them something that requires little money and no expertise to preform? Like abstinence for instance. Or does that make too much sense?”

    Numerous studies have shown that abstinence programs simply don’t work. While’s there’s nothing wrong with advocating abstinence, abstinence ONLY programs ignore basic human behaviour, deny sexual education and discussion, and don’t suggest alternatives which are more effective (like birth control).

    http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/abstinencereport.asp

  14. Milo says:

    #69 – MIT: You put that very well.

  15. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    Sorry to be rude, but fuck ‘numerous studies.’ They aren’t necessary. Anyone with a high school education and a pair of functioning gonads of his/her own should know that people will have sex despite anything you tell them. The hormonal and mental instinct to procreate under any and all circumstances can not, never has and never will be supressed by words, by starvation, by sickness, or anything else.

    Telling people to not fuck is exactly as effective as telling them to not breathe. It does not work and the existence of the human race is the proof of it.

    Try to not be an idiot there, Jim W.

  16. Thomas says:

    #58
    > What would you call the words and actions of Pen and Teller?

    Entertaining. Enlightening. Anyone that brings igorance and hypocracy out into the open for all to see and do it in an entertaining way is helping all of us. Arguments like yours do not address the millions of dollars in donations that somehow vaporized. It does not explain why with all the money she received that the conditions were not better.

    #68
    > Like abstinence for instance. Or does that make too much sense?

    First, *teaching* abstinence is not free. Second, biology and overwhelming evidence shows that abstinence education is not effective in reducing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, NO it does not make sense to continue using an approach proven to be ineffective.

  17. Thomas says:

    Oh, and one more thing, strangely abstinence is ineffective in cases of rape. It may come as a shock to many but telling the rapist not to continue nor encouraging the rapist to wear a condom are effective in preventing pregnancies in cases of rape.

  18. Angel H. Wong says:

    #11 Not for evangelicals, to them Catholics are not christians.

    #21

    Thanks for the correction 🙂

  19. Mr. Fusion says:

    #72, jag,

    In the interests of my own self improvement, is it GFY or GFYS?

    Great sentiment.

  20. Jägermeister says:

    #79 – Mr. Fusion

    Good For You… but GFYS wouldn’t have been bad reply either. 😉

  21. Jim W. says:

    Skippy, your study only studied 4 out of 700 programs. that strikes me as kind of limited research to be making such a definitive statement. Try this story about the very same study.
    Heritage Foundation Expert Responds to Flawed Abstinence Study

    True Tomas, teaching absinece isn’t free, but I would wager its cheeper than preforming abortions.

    As to sex being as necessary as breathing !?! I don’t know where to begin with that one.

  22. Thomas says:

    >True Tomas , teaching
    > absinece isn’t free, but I would
    > wager its cheeper than preforming abortions.

    Yet abortion is far cheaper than rearing an unwanted child.

  23. Skippy says:

    #81, see the following:

    http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7613/248
    http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11&abstractId=2198111
    (there is another link which the system doesn’t want to show for some reason)

    There is very little credible evidence to support the idea that abstinence only programs work. There is LOTS of evidence which supports that sex education DOES work. Your link from the Heritage Foundation, which is highly conservative, is going to find flaws in the study, of course.

  24. Skippy says:

    #81, I just re-read the report you linked to, and I see the following:

    “Fortunately, there are 15 other studies (most appearing in peer-reviewed journals) showing that abstinence programs are effective in reducing youth sexual activity. ”

    OK, so where are these studies? Difficult to verify his claims if he doesn’t provide sources.

  25. TIHZ_HO says:

    #55 Jägermeister “That answer might indicate that they’re agnostic, not atheist.”

    #57 “Tihz–the contest between religion and reason is not the same as the preference between coke and pepsi or mac and PC==until the fan boys of one side put the other to death that is.”

    Judging from some of the rants from the Apple Mac side its only a matter of time. LOL 😀

    #66 Gee, sounds like some places in rural south in the US. LOL 😀

    #73 “Yes, that’s why they need birth control services, because they are poor and uneducated” – “Yes, that’s why they need birth control services, because they are poor and uneducated”

    “So why not teach them something that requires little money and no expertise to preform? ”

    Now you are touching on one of the reasons for China’s one Child policy. China still has 70-80% of its population in rural areas and development is much slower there than in the cities.

    “Or does that make too much sense?”

    #77 “It may come as a shock to many but telling the rapist not to continue nor encouraging the rapist to wear a condom are effective in preventing pregnancies in cases of rape.”

    Sorry but I find that hard to believe…

    Victim: “Pardon me, I don’t want to be rude but before you rape and possibly kill me would you mind wearing this condom – remember its for your protection as well as mine.”

    Rapist: “Please lady, tank you all da same, your too kind, but I gots one already – see its already on…Ok were was we? Oh yeah you were screaming….”

    Cheers

  26. TIHZ_HO says:

    #55 Jägermeister “That answer might indicate that they’re agnostic, not atheist.”

    Where was my comment? it vanished… : /

    Yes I agree I should have used the term agnostic – thanks for that!

    Editors – On hot topics comments quickly morph into a forum…so how about a DU forum for hot topics….or is there one already but I just haven’t found it yet.

    Cheers

  27. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    It would make more sense to simply age the blog entries by # of comments, that way the active ones would stay up top and the completely dead (or radioactive) ones would rapidly slip away…

  28. TIHZ_HO says:

    #87 LtG Yes – that would help to keep a good post going by keeping its position on the main page ’cause even good posts die once they move.

    What I was getting at, when you want to reply to someone’s comment on a hot post you clip and paste what they said and then comment on that – and then someone comments on that…so now its a forum verses just making comments about the post.

    The regular comments stay put and when a hot post comes along and when the comments grow to say + 50 comments it goes to a forum with a link on the main page – “Active forums”

    What do you think?

    Unless DU has one already – but I never noticed it…

    Cheers

  29. undissembled says:

    91 responses! Do I smell a repost???

  30. Mister Mustard says:

    >>and have tits as big as baseballs.

    Angel, you horny bastard. You should be watching those plastic surgery shows on TV instead of that bukakke stuff. Nowadays, “tits as big as baseballs” are NOTHING. With modern advances in cosmetic surgery, one can easily have tits as big as softballs, as big as canteloupes, as big as watermelons. Heck, you can get ’em as big as a zepplin.


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