Pope to beatify Mother Teresa

yahudi

Yahudi, There are serveral charity homes for lapers, run by BABA AMTE, heard of him? there is no descremination there! Infact i know couple of small scale industries which employ lapers to make papad and soaps.
BTW i am a ngo. My interest is basically helping HIV +ves.
Well, where did you get this notion that the ppl that were helped by mother were not converted? show me one case, of her selfless charity? Infact, she used to ask them to leave all there hopes on GOD?], and didn't even provide them with any medication. Only prayers! Well that was not the same policy she followed for herself! She used to take medicines for something as small and insignificant as cold and cough.
This is the fact. If you still find her noble...

read this-

Mother Teresa's House of Illusions
How She Harmed Her Helpers As Well As Those They 'Helped'
by Susan Shields


The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 18, Number 1.


Some years after I became a Catholic, I joined Mother Teresa's congregation, the Missionaries of Charity. I was one of her sisters for nine and a half years, living in the Bronx, Rome, and San Francisco, until I became disillusioned and left in May 1989. As I reentered the world, I slowly began to unravel the tangle of lies in which I had lived. I wondered how I could have believed them for so long.

Three of Mother Teresa's teachings that are fundamental to her religious congregation are all the more dangerous because they are believed so sincerely by her sisters. Most basic is the belief that as long as a sister obeys she is doing God's will. Another is the belief that the sisters have leverage over God by choosing to suffer. Their suffering makes God very happy. He then dispenses more graces to humanity. The third is the belief that any attachment to human beings, even the poor being served, supposedly interferes with love of God and must be vigilantly avoided or immediately uprooted. The efforts to prevent any attachments cause continual chaos and confusion, movement and change in the congregation. Mother Teresa did not invent these beliefs - they were prevalent in religious congregations before Vatican II - but she did everything in her power (which was great) to enforce them.

Once a sister has accepted these fallacies she will do almost anything. She can allow her health to be destroyed, neglect those she vowed to serve, and switch off her feelings and independent thought. She can turn a blind eye to suffering, inform on her fellow sisters, tell lies with ease, and ignore public laws and regulations.

Women from many nations joined Mother Teresa in the expectation that they would help the poor and come closer to God themselves. When I left, there were more than 3,000 sisters in approximately 400 houses scattered throughout the world. Many of these sisters who trusted Mother Teresa to guide them have become broken people. In the face of overwhelming evidence, some of them have finally admitted that their trust has been betrayed, that God could not possibly be giving the orders they hear. It is difficult for them to decide to leave - their self-confidence has been destroyed, and they have no education beyond what they brought with them when they joined. I was one of the lucky ones who mustered enough courage to walk away.

It is in the hope that others may see the fallacy of this purported way to holiness that I tell a little of what I know. Although there are relatively few tempted to join Mother Teresa's congregation of sisters, there are many who generously have supported her work because they do not realize how her twisted premises strangle efforts to alleviate misery. Unaware that most of the donations sit unused in her bank accounts, they too are deceived into thinking they are helping the poor.

As a Missionary of Charity, I was assigned to record donations and write the thank-you letters. The money arrived at a frantic rate. The mail carrier often delivered the letters in sacks. We wrote receipts for checks of $50,000 and more on a regular basis. Sometimes a donor would call up and ask if we had received his check, expecting us to remember it readily because it was so large. How could we say that we could not recall it because we had received so many that were even larger?

When Mother spoke publicly, she never asked for money, but she did encourage people to make sacrifices for the poor, to "give until it hurts." Many people did - and they gave it to her. We received touching letters from people, sometimes apparently poor themselves, who were making sacrifices to send us a little money for the starving people in Africa, the flood victims in Bangladesh, or the poor children in India. Most of the money sat in our bank accounts.

The flood of donations was considered to be a sign of God's approval of Mother Teresa's congregation. We were told by our superiors that we received more gifts than other religious congregations because God was pleased with Mother, and because the Missionaries of Charity were the sisters who were faithful to the true spirit of religious life.

Most of the sisters had no idea how much money the congregation was amassing. After all, we were taught not to collect anything. One summer the sisters living on the outskirts of Rome were given more crates of tomatoes than they could distribute. None of their neighbors wanted them because the crop had been so prolific that year. The sisters decided to can the tomatoes rather than let them spoil, but when Mother found out what they had done she was very displeased. Storing things showed lack of trust in Divine Providence.

The donations rolled in and were deposited in the bank, but they had no effect on our ascetic lives and very little effect on the lives of the poor we were trying to help. We lived a simple life, bare of all superfluities. We had three sets of clothes, which we mended until the material was too rotten to patch anymore. We washed our own clothes by hand. The never-ending piles of sheets and towels from our night shelter for the homeless we washed by hand, too. Our bathing was accomplished with only one bucket of water. Dental and medical checkups were seen as an unnecessary luxury.

Mother was very concerned that we preserve our spirit of poverty. Spending money would destroy that poverty. She seemed obsessed with using only the simplest of means for our work. Was this in the best interests of the people we were trying to help, or were we in fact using them as a tool to advance our own "sanctity?" In Haiti, to keep the spirit of poverty, the sisters reused needles until they became blunt. Seeing the pain caused by the blunt needles, some of the volunteers offered to procure more needles, but the sisters refused.

We begged for food and supplies from local merchants as though we had no resources. On one of the rare occasions when we ran out of donated bread, we went begging at the local store. When our request was turned down, our superior decreed that the soup kitchen could do without bread for the day.

It was not only merchants who were offered a chance to be generous. Airlines were requested to fly sisters and air cargo free of charge. Hospitals and doctors were expected to absorb the costs of medical treatment for the sisters or to draw on funds designated for the religious. Workmen were encouraged to labor without payment or at reduced rates. We relied heavily on volunteers who worked long hours in our soup kitchens, shelters, and day camps.

A hard-working farmer devoted many of his waking hours to collecting and delivering food for our soup kitchens and shelters. "If I didn't come, what would you eat?" he asked.

Our Constitution forbade us to beg for more than we needed, but, when it came to begging, the millions of dollars accumulating in the bank were treated as if they did not exist.

For years I had to write thousands of letters to donors, telling them that their entire gift would be used to bring God's loving compassion to the poorest of the poor. I was able to keep my complaining conscience in check because we had been taught that the Holy Spirit was guiding Mother. To doubt her was a sign that we were lacking in trust and, even worse, guilty of the sin of pride. I shelved my objections and hoped that one day I would understand why Mother wanted to gather so much money, when she herself had taught us that even storing tomato sauce showed lack of trust in Divine Providence.


For nearly a decade, Susan Shields was a Missionaries of Charity sister. She played a key role in Mother Teresa's organization until she resigned.

regards-
-soul migdal

Dear Soul,
You are providing a lot of anti Teresa reports, but I had a simple question, you missed. I repeat here…a quote from your earlier post.

‘Very close friend in Mumbai, Farida C.P. She and her two younger sisters became orphans at an early age when their parents committed suicide together.’

You write, ‘very close friend’, what does it mean? Does it mean your friends? What was the age of these orphans that they could think and refuse conversion?

Frankly I do not have much information, but I know that whenever a systematic conversion takes place, it is made public thru media and as per your reports Mother Teresa was converting people so successfully incognito.
Anti Teresa articles appeared when she got the Nobel, may be because she belonged to a particular religion. Earlier, she was not a known figure, especially in India.

Is it possible that a successful missionary remains behind the screen in India?

Your all efforts are welcome. Can you provide something from Indian print media in your favor?
Yes I know about Baba Amte and if my information is correct, Baba and Mother respected each other’ efforts.

With best rgds

She is around 24 now, must have been 15 or so than.
she is the eldest. I know her since 3-4 years.

as for the reports here most of them are by christians. Its not about religion, its about creating a myth out of a selfish soul. Its not about conversions either, its about cheating the gulibles.
Why do you think Graham Staines was burnt alive. No it was not the work of any of the parivaarist...it was about taking gullibles for ride.
Did you know, Graham Stains used to convert poor oriya villagers with promise of huge amount in return. And after the conversion, these gullibles were never paid their due ammount. Can you understand wot these poor illiterate ppl felt? i dont justify violence,but i can well imagine the anger of a poor weak man who gets cheated.
I am a mandean christian by birth. Its not about genuine conversions, but the crooked designs in it, that puts me off.
I am happy not following any religion, rather than defend curruption like this.

BTW, yahudi, i have sent you a PM...plz chk

Dear Soul, can you confirm your findings thru Indian print media?
You are repeating something like conversions and cheating the gullible to the extent that she captured Nobel by crook.
Re your charges against Graham Strains, again, can you confirm it thru Indian media, and not by some rediff, pls pick up some normal media?
Do you want to say that Dara Singh did not (burn alive) Graham and his children, and all that court process is a fake?

Mr. yahudi,

If you can state without any proof that You doubt that Pope believe in a God then Soul can also post his comments without any proof!

Please be fair!

oh, so, Yahudi, times of india has more credibility than rest of the media.
fine, this is from today’s times, this should satisfy you.right?

choiw

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=257397

LEADER ARTICLE

Beatification Boon: Asia Firmly on Catholic Roadmap

BALBIR K PUNJ

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2003 12:01:02 AM ]

The controversy over her sainthood apart, it is amusing to note the manner in which the beatification of Mother Teresa of Kolkata was received in the supposedly secular media in India.

Newspapers and television channels vied with each other to report the spectacle at the Vatican.

In contrast, when an NDA minister, Sanjay Paswan espouses tantra as being part of Indian spiritual tradition, he is lampooned and dismissed as an obscurantist. One cannot help observe the irony of Pope John Paul II worn down by Parkinson’s disease beatifying Mother Teresa for the miracle cure she performed when she herself needed sophisticated medical attention in her lifetime. While she was alive, Mother Teresa did not perform any supernatural acts, least of all miracles of healing. She only prayed to God for them.

The media and secularists don’t even bother to examine why the Vatican is determined to elevate her to sainthood so quickly after her death. Few have cared to find out why Mother Teresa was nominated by three American Conservative and controversial senators Pete Domenici, Mark O Hatfield, and Hubert Humphrey for the Nobel peace prize. Most Indian were thrilled with the fairytale of a white Slavic nun from remote Albania giving up a comfortable life in Europe to nurse the children of a lesser God in Motijheel slum of Kolkata. The argument is that Indians acknowledged her saintliness during her lifetime, the Vatican is only institutionalising this after her death.

The Church usually beatifies its servants for their efforts in popularising Christianity. But with the precondition that such a person must have healed someone miraculously even if this is after their death. Three incidents are often cited to bolster Mother Teresa’s claim to eventual sainthood.

A Frenchwoman in the United States who broke her ribs in an accident is said to have been healed after wearing a locket with Mother Teresa’s image, a Palestinian girl is said to have been healed after Mother appeared in her dreams. But the most publicised case is that of Monica Besra of West Bengal who claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of Mother Teresa kept at her home and cured her of a cancerous tumour.

It is customary for the Vatican to set up an inquiry committee to scrutinise claims in support of beatification. It traditionally included an office called advocatus diaboli (or Devil’s Advocate) whose purpose was to test the veracity of any extraordinary claims. Pope John Paul II abolished this office altogether in order to create instant saints. Ironically, the Vatican committee did not even deem it necessary to interview the doctor who treated Monica Besra. Her physician, Dr Ranjan Mustafi, has made it clear that Monica never suffered from any cancerous tumour and that her tubercular cyst was cured by a course of prescribed medicine.

The Vatican debars anybody from being nominated for beatification until five years after his or her death. As for sainthood, it usually takes more than a century if not several centuries. Historically, Saint Francis is the only exception to this norm. He was canonised by Pope Innocent IX one year after his death. But Pope John Paul II has expedited the sainthood process. He bent the rules to nominate Mother Teresa for canonisation within a year of her death.

The legitimacy of having performed a miracle-cure as a condition for canonisation is not the core issue here. The legacy of the miracle-cure comes directly from Jesus Christ’s faith-healings recorded in the New Testament. It certainly played a crucial role in mediaeval Europe which was very deficient in medical science. Its reliability declined in proportion to the growth of modern medical science in the West, quite on the same lines as the Church’s views on astronomy, geology and the evolution of Mankind.

In the Indian tradition, people and posterity decide who is a saint or who is not. It is not for any institution to certify a person’s spiritual status. This is probably due to the decentralised and diffused nature of Hinduism. Kabir, Raidas, Tulsidas are saints by the people’s verdict, not by the act of any institution.

It is most important to understand whether this act of beatification was motivated. John Paul II who completed 25 years of the papacy the same week is a conservative determined to push a Catholic roadmap. He is one of the most political Popes ever — he helped bring about the end of Communism in his native Poland. His predecessor Paul VI, who had begun to modernise and decentralise the Church appointed only 26 new cardinals during his 15-year tenure. John Paul II has appointed 226 during his papacy. On the day of the beatification, he appointed 31 others (keeping the 31st name a secret). They are all carefully chosen fellow conservatives to further the Church’s agenda, and one of them is going to succeed him.

Pope John Paul II wishes to create many role models for people who have not been reached yet. It is not out of place to remember his mission as distinctly pronounced in November 1999 in New Delhi — the evangelisation of Asia in the third millennium on the lines of Europe in the first millennium and America in the second. The beatification of Mother Teresa is a step in that direction.


read-


Newspapers and television channels vied with each other to report the spectacle at the Vatican.

In contrast, when an NDA minister, Sanjay Paswan espouses tantra as being part of Indian spiritual tradition, he is lampooned and dismissed as an obscurantist. One cannot help observe the irony of Pope John Paul II worn down by Parkinson's disease beatifying Mother Teresa for the miracle cure she performed when she herself needed sophisticated medical attention in her lifetime. While she was alive, Mother Teresa did not perform any supernatural acts, least of all miracles of healing. She only prayed to God for them.

The Church usually beatifies its servants for their efforts in popularising Christianity.

It is most important to understand whether this act of beatification was motivated. John Paul II who completed 25 years of the papacy the same week is a conservative determined to push a Catholic roadmap. He is one of the most political Popes ever — he helped bring about the end of Communism in his native Poland. His predecessor Paul VI, who had begun to modernise and decentralise the Church appointed only 26 new cardinals during his 15-year tenure. John Paul II has appointed 226 during his papacy. On the day of the beatification, he appointed 31 others (keeping the 31st name a secret). They are all carefully chosen fellow conservatives to further the Church's agenda, and one of them is going to succeed him.

Pope John Paul II wishes to create many role models for people who have not been reached yet. It is not out of place to remember his mission as distinctly pronounced in November 1999 in New Delhi — the evangelisation of Asia in the third millennium on the lines of Europe in the first millennium and America in the second. The beatification of Mother Teresa is a step in that direction.


SATISFIED? NOT YET!!

If you can state without any proof that You doubt that Pope believe in a God then Soul can also post his comments without any proof!

[QUOTE]

Thank you fatehahmad, only a small clarification, i am a woman.

My dear Soul, what the hell you convince me. All this I have stated earlier, the tactics of the Vatican and so on……I do not contradict. /you have really missed something

I ask you to provide some information thru Indian print media that Mother Teresa was involved in ……forced conversions and that her charity was a fraud and she got the Nobel by crooked means.
As well you raised the mischief of Graham that he offered big bribes for conversion and became a victim of the villagers wrath.

I want to read something valid on these issues. (raised by you.)

Mai dearest Yahudi,
Times of India is an indian media.
It clearly states, all you want to hear. Ofcause if you choose not to, its a different matter.

Graham Stains, or rather any missionary, offers bribe. Its open fact. If you still want to get convinced. I rather not dig out info from the net that never satisfies you. Go to any remote Orrissa village and take a first hand report on this matter.

See how many villages still support Dara. Ask them why?

Forget Orrissa, rather go to Arunachal pradesh or Tripura, and read the leaflets distributed by missionaries.

gud luck, for ya mission in search for truth.

Dear Peoples,

Firstly.

Mother Teresa is not officially to be referred to as Saint Teresa.

Beautification entitles her to be called “Blessed Teresa”.

Soul,

**Three of Mother Teresa’s teachings that are fundamental to her religious congregation are all the more dangerous because they are believed so sincerely by her sisters. Most basic is the belief that as long as a sister obeys she is doing God’s will. Another is the belief that the sisters have leverage over God by choosing to suffer. Their suffering makes God very happy. He then dispenses more graces to humanity. The third is the belief that any attachment to human beings, even the poor being served, supposedly interferes with love of God and must be vigilantly avoided or immediately uprooted. The efforts to prevent any attachments cause continual chaos and confusion, movement and change in the congregation. Mother Teresa did not invent these beliefs - they were prevalent in religious congregations before Vatican II - but she did everything in her power (which was great) to enforce them. **

She was elderly and of the old school of nuns. I had an Auntie that was a sister of charity that left the order in the late sixties during reforms of the church.

The sisters have always been of the belief that love and obedience to God is foremost. Worship and adoration of God comes before human relationships. Before ones father or mother. Serving the poor without attachment is encouraged in order for the sisters to avoid personal vanity.

I disagree with the post that choosing to suffer to grant leverage over God is the reason they live in poverty. The sisters belief is to accept poverty and suffering is a sacrafice they make as an offering to God.

And yes, majority of old school nuns do this because they believe that poverty and sacrafice follow the example of Jesus. And they do this without attachment to avoid self love and vanity which they believe interfers with the vow they made to serve God.

Anyway..

This article points out the humaness in Mother Teresa…the times she questioned her own belief and even the existence of God.

And this article states, that to continue the path of serving the poor, even when questioning ones own faith, is a miracle.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/Kevin+Horrigan/0A9889F744A31B5986256DCC00658F67?

The sisters have always been of the belief that love and obedience to God is foremost. Worship and adoration of God comes before human relationships. Before ones father or mother. Serving the poor without attachment is encouraged in order for the sisters to avoid personal vanity.

[QUOTE]

Gr8, sounds soooooo divinly brainwashed. Adoration to which GOD? Only one and only one true God, the father of jesus, the one who wrote Bible, sweetheart! no one else. Try your luck telling them, you follow Allah. If they open their arms for you, Gud luck!

There mission is to convert as many ppl to their faith as possible, they manipulate poverty, illness, and other life depressions to achieve their goal.
Yeah, they call it serving the poor. gr8 work. Kudos!

Can you plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz find me a single case of a moslem or a hindu who was served by them, without converting to christainity.

And yes, majority of old school nuns do this because they believe that poverty and sacrafice follow the example of Jesus.
[QUOTE]

who jesus? hope you have some proof of his existence.
Just like Ram, he is a myth.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by soul: *
The sisters have always been of the belief that love and obedience to God is foremost. Worship and adoration of God comes before human relationships. Before ones father or mother. Serving the poor without attachment is encouraged in order for the sisters to avoid personal vanity.

[QUOTE]

Gr8, sounds soooooo divinly brainwashed. Adoration to which GOD? Only one and only one true God, the father of jesus, the one who wrote Bible, sweetheart! no one else. Try your luck telling them, you follow Allah. If they open their arms for you, Gud luck!

Adoration to God. (period)

There mission is to convert as many ppl to their faith as possible, they manipulate poverty, illness, and other life depressions to achieve their goal.
Yeah, they call it serving the poor. gr8 work. Kudos!

Well ok. Perhaps I might believe you. But do you know of another single soul that makes it her life work caring for the poorest of the poor?

Can you plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz find me a single case of a moslem or a hindu who was served by them, without converting to christainity.

I don't know of a case. But if I was witty, I would say you sir. Because looking around I note that you are the only one questioning.

And yes, majority of old school nuns do this because they believe that poverty and sacrafice follow the example of Jesus.
[QUOTE]

who jesus? hope you have some proof of his existence.
Just like Ram, he is a myth.
[/QUOTE]

As you wish m'lord. But if a myth why is it that so many believe?

Is a matter of faith.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by soul: *
She is around 24 now, must have been 15 or so than.
she is the eldest. I know her since 3-4 years.

as for the reports here most of them are by christians. Its not about religion, its about creating a myth out of a selfish soul. Its not about conversions either, its about cheating the gulibles.
Why do you think Graham Staines was burnt alive. No it was not the work of any of the parivaarist...it was about taking gullibles for ride.
Did you know, Graham Stains used to convert poor oriya villagers with promise of huge amount in return. And after the conversion, these gullibles were never paid their due ammount. Can you understand wot these poor illiterate ppl felt? i dont justify violence,but i can well imagine the anger of a poor weak man who gets cheated.
I am a mandean christian by birth. Its not about genuine conversions, but the crooked designs in it, that puts me off.
I am happy not following any religion, rather than defend curruption like this.
[/QUOTE]

So Mother Teresa IYO is a liar and cheat?

Read the article. Even if millions donated she was able to operate safe haven for the poorest of the poor. Even if the places she created were not up to your standards for lepers.

Make fun of Mother Teresa?

If she wasn't a good guiding light then how come the article above is intended to discredit her buy making her out to be selfish, yet seems to say that she operated on faith?

I know someone closely that held her hand. My friend told me that she felt an electricity in Mother Teresa's grip. A warm handshake. A handshake that evelopes ones heart.

The millions accumulated by the order are not yours to spend. Or mine to spend. The millions IMHO belong to God. And God surely knows where the $ should be spent, and I think God knows exactly where the $ is spent.

Not for you or I to judge.

Have some coffee, and think again wot you are saying!!


But if a myth why is it that so many believe?

didn't everyone in the world beleived this world was flat?
Just because large number of ppl beleive in something, dose that give it a credibility?


Is a matter of faith.

Faith or Bigotry


So Mother Teresa IYO is a liar and cheat?

Yes, a selfish person would misguided poor ppl.


Read the article. Even if millions donated she was able to operate safe haven for the poorest of the poor. Even if the places she created were not up to your standards for lepers.

What does this mean? i didn't get you. But if you are talking about govt giving shelter....thats the saddess part.
If you are talking about donations she received, than she was funded by vatican.
Also read the articles i have put here.


Make fun of Mother Teresa?

If she wasn't a good guiding light then how come the article above is intended to discredit her buy making her out to be selfish, yet seems to say that she operated on faith?

I know someone closely that held her hand. My friend told me that she felt an electricity in Mother Teresa's grip. A warm handshake. A handshake that evelopes ones heart.

Fun??????? I am critizing her. Which is my right.

If you think these missionaries are GOD sent boons to ppl, why dont you all let them in Pakistan?
Why are their blesphemy laws that prevent moslems from converting to other religions?
C'mon...dont you all want to experience electrical handshakes....and treat tumours with faith healings.
C'mon they are 'GOD sent', open your gates for them.

If you can't do that, stop preaching others.


The millions accumulated by the order are not yours to spend. Or mine to spend. The millions IMHO belong to God. And God surely knows where the $ should be spent, and I think God knows exactly where the $ is spent.

Not for you or I to judge.

Oh! so you claim to know GOD so well!!
can we all get introduced to 'her'? i mean 'him'? maybe 'it'!!

Dear AVM,

Can you pls post this article in completetion, as my internet does not open it, and thanks in advance.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...256DCC00658F67?

:flower1::flower1::flower1:
Dear soul, you are still not at ease. You have criticized Mother Teresa and her thesis, no problem, but when I asked you anything concrete from a proper media against Mother, you send me article against Christianity, or against tactics of Vatican.

Frankly I am aware of all such things and your vision, but pls give to read something concrete against Mother Teresa, from some reliable sources. I repeat against Mother Teresa, and not Vatican. These are two different things.

The same I want to read your charges against Graham. Frankly I am not going to visit Orrisa or some other State.

Some correction, Pope said recently, ‘In first Millennium we converted Europe, in second Millennium we converted Africa, (Not America, as you have mentioned.) And now it is the turn of Asia.’
I have earlier stated that the Vatican has no right to sell Mother Teresa.

'Mother Teresa harmed Kolkata's image'

October 16, 2003 14:27 IST

Raising a voice of dissent as the world prepares to celebrate Mother Teresa's beatification on October 19, a doctor, who had deposed before an inquiry into the Mother's life, on Thursday said she did 'more harm than good' to the image of the City of Joy.

"It seems to me that she needed the city more than it needed her," Aroup Chatterjee, a Kolkata-born doctor settled in
England, told PTI from London.

"Ever since I went to England and travelled to other countries in the West, people looked upon me as an oddity - a doctor from the world's ultimate hell-hole," Chatterjee said.

Persistent confrontations with his native city's negative image in the West prompted Chatterjee to write Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, a treatise on the activities of the Missionaries of Charity and its founder.

Kolkata's negative image was the result of persistent media coverage of Mother Teresa and the activities of the Missionaries of Charity that depicted the Nobel laureate nun as the ultimate saviour of a city teeming with leprosy patients, he said.

Even small Western businesses did not scout in Kolkata because of its negative image, which neither the Mother nor her organisation made any attempt to allay, Chatterjee alleged.

"When a businessman friend from Kolkata came visiting me in London, one of my neighbours, a Polish lady, took half a day off from work just to see my friend. She was a Teresa devotee and could not believe there could be a businessman in Kolkata," he said.

Chatterjee's book, which has been received well in the West, deals with the process of creation of 'myths' around Mother Teresa, her accounting policies, her politics, her relationship with Kolkata, views from within her charity homes, profiles of Kolkata's destitute based on extensive interviews and a comparison of her organisation's work with that of other religious and secular charities.

"I wrote the book to set the record straight since I realised that admiration for Mother Teresa is based less on facts and more on the domino effect of myth making. She was a lover of poverty, rather than the poor. She once said to a woman in pain: Jesus is loving you," he said.

Encouraged by the success of his book, Chatterjee is in the process of creating a network of sympathisers who would
work in projecting the reality that Kolkata is not all slums, leper colonies and hunger and that Mother Teresa's is not the
only charity organisation working in the metropolis.

An avowed atheist, Chatterjee has no objection to the Mother being beatified or canonized in keeping with Roman Catholic laws. "She subscribed to a religious point of view and it is up to the clergy of that religion to decide what to do
with her. I myself am not against her becoming a saint. I said this in my deposition in London on January 3 and 4, 2001."

Though Chatterjee's book has earned accolades in the West, his views do not go down well with the Catholic clergy in Kolkata associated with Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity.

again this will not satisfy dear yahudi!

au revoire

Soul - Give it up, Please. Mother Teresa is a Saint, Period. If I have to give up my religion for the sake of my children or my family, I would do that without blinking an eye.

What she has done for poor people in India is amazing no matter what her motive was. If you continue to insult Mother Teresa, I would be forced to report your post to MODs.

Thanks..AK