User:Ridiculus mus/sandbox/Criticism of Mother Teresa v2

Criticism
After the award of the Nobel Peace Prixe for 1979, Mother Teresa's adherence to the Church's condemnation of abortion and contraception attracted odium in some quarters, especially in the West, as did her closeness to Pope John Paul II. Critics of the Catholic Church resented the fact that she used her celebrity status to promote the Church's teachings, and they attempted to present her views as extreme or even fanatical whereas they were always mainstream.

The enthusiasm shown for her work by people of all conditions of life, manifested by the volume of donations she received for the Missionaries of Charity also aroused hostility, from professed atheists in particular who were dismayed at what they considered to be people's gullibility. Some Bengali critics accused Mother Teresa of exploiting or even fabricating the degraded image of Calcutta in order to win international fame.

Attempts were made to sully her reputation by claiming she knowingly accepted donations from disreputable sources. It was said that in one notorious case she knew or ought to have known that the money was stolen; and that she accepted money from the despised Duvalier regime in Haiti, which she visited in early 1981. In neither case were these aspersions substantiated, although this did not stop her critics from repeating them.

The increasing wealth of the order she founded became yet another grievance. On the one hand, large sums were accumulating in checking (non-interest bearing) accounts in the United States, and large sums were being spent on establishing houses for her order and for their missionary work all over the world; on the other, her Home for the Dying continued to maintain the same austere ethos with which it had been founded, that is to say, as a place for those who had nowhere else to go – a point even hostile sources conceded.

Critics complained that she did not apply donors' money on founding a high-tech medical facility in Calcutta, or on transforming her Home for the Dying into a western-style hospice. Apart from the barriers that advanced technologies and the need for specialist physicians to manage pain would interpose between carers and those they cared for (disrupting the ethos of the Home), the use of opiates in India for managing cancer pain remains, ten years after Mother Teresa's death, highly problematic for legal, regulatory, cultural and other reasons (including supply interruptions, harsh punishments imposed for even minor infractions of the rules, and the fear of addiction by health workers). Despite the lack of sophisticated analgesic regimes, volunteers (including those with western medical qualifications and experience) reported that her Home for the Dying was a place of joy not sadness. As late as 2001, researchers could write that "pain relief is a new notion in [India]", and "palliative care training has been available only since 1997". It was only in 2012 that the government of West Bengal finally amended the applicable regulations simplifying "the process of possession, transport, purchase, sale and import of inter-state of morphine or any preparation containing morphine by 'Recognized Medical Institution'."

Notwithstanding these practical considerations, the advanced treatment Mother Teresa received for an increasingly aggravated heart condition (which eventually killed her) was said to evidence her personal hypocrisy, while the factors that impelled the Missionaries of Charity to prolong her active life were ignored. She herself, at an advanced age, attempted to resign as Superior general of the order, but the sisters were unanimous in re-electing her in 1990 when she was already 80 years old.

Her international renown and the fact that she received lavish honours from heads of state, universities and other international figures and institutions was pilloried by some. She was depicted as cunning, lacking in modesty and humility; they were either dupes or manipulators.

Nor were these criticisms expressed in measured terms. Her critics frequently used vulgar, insulting and abusive language, and even grave allegations of personal impropriety were made against her, dependent on nothing but insinuations and suspicion, guilt by association, and adverse conclusions drawn from her silence. Throughout, Mother Teresa maintained a stoical silence in the face of abuse, and when pressed replied only that she forgave those who attacked her.