Mother Teresa Was No Saint Says Study

[Warren Stupidity]

Internationally revered Catholic nun Mother Teresa and her legacy are the subjects of a new study released by University of Ottawa researcher Carole Sénéchal Serge, and University of Montreal researchers Larivée and Genevieve Chenard. The study authors found that Mother Teresa was the farthest thing from a saint. Instead, the study authors say, she was a cruel woman who believed that there was glory in the suffering of the sick. She made people with grave illnesses sicker by denying them medication and forcing them to writhe in pain while she squirreled away “enormous sums of money” that could have been used to help them.

The authors cite Mother Teresa as saying “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.” They say this opinion informed how she cared for the sick and dying, causing huge amounts of pain and loss of dignity among her charges.

The study also suggests that she failed to provide for her patients’ basic medical needs and in some cases, starved them of food and medications. They also point out that she received care in a regular modern hospital when she herself fell sick, and that she misused millions of dollars in aid money that should have gone to care for the patients in her homes for the dying.

http://guardianlv.com/2013/10/mother-teresa-was-no-saint-says-study/

[apcalc]

1. It doesn't matter, any of it. The Catholic Church can do what it wants.

[Sherman A1]

5. Indeed they can

The can call her a Saint or a Kumquat in the end it's just a name or title and history will write her legacy.

[rug]

3. Lol, this old nun really gets your, er, goat, doesn't she, warren?

You must having been waiting weeks for this day.

[Cartoonist]

4. The goat defender

Always first on the scene to defend religious cruelty

[rug]

9. The cartoonist.

Always second on the scene to defend inanity.

There's usually two or three in front of you.

[Igel]

6. What appears to be a reasonable critique of the article is

http://www.ledevoir.com/culture/livres/373248/le-mauvais-proces-fait-a-mere-teresa

Sadly, like the original article, the critique is in French.

Happily, unlike the original article, the critique is not behind a paywall.

However, some of the "stumbling blocks" in the abstract are sort of strange. She can't be a saint because she agreed with the Church's position on abortion. Really? Isn't that having critics and at leas one atheist decide on the One True Definition of "saint" that the Church they're not part of must use?

In others we hear echoes of the "guilt by association" that we hear in critiques by ubermoralists of the Clintons' foundation: "How dare they accept money from this group or his person?" It's unclear that taking the gifts or the money constitute a conflict of interest or moral taint. I doubt that Hoxha really wanted to influence what she did in Calcutta.

In other cases, it's a case of "we're not sure what happened, so we'll assume the worst." Or "she finds suffering to be virtuous, 'blessed are the poor' is just crap." She shouldn't have respected the poor's endurance in accepting their fate, whatever her religion says.

Not my concern how the Church views its own in the light of its own doctrines. (Consistency would be good.)

I also note that the critics are Canadian and mostly sitting back saying, "Not how I think she should have helped the homeless, starving, sick poor people. Now, let me be, I need to go back to my house and prepare my dinner ... Damned, only have red wine so I'll have to stop and get more wine to suit my dinner before I pronounce judgment on others doing shit I wouldn't lift a finger to do.&quot In other words, it's the imperfect demanding unforgiving perfection from those who are at least trying.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. These criticisms of her were out there while she was still alive.

Her very own words show her for the monster she really was.

[Iggo]

8. In the age of information, there ain't no saints.

Diluting your brand again?

Please proceed, Catholic Church.

[struggle4progress]

10. " ... Did you do field work in Calcutta at all?

No. But I’d like to go to Calcutta ..."
http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/i-dont-think-she-deserved-the-nobel/284270

So .. a few folk in Canada read a few articles on Teresa for an ethics class -- and published their conclusions as research!

[rug]

11. Science!

Unbiased science.

[struggle4progress]

12. "Study" author Larivee describes his work in the University of Montreal's School of Psychoeducation:

... the bulk of my work relates to human intelligence, its nature, its development and measurement. In this perspective, I focus on developmental approaches to intelligence ... I am interested in the determinants of intelligence in an epigenetic perspective (interaction between genes and the environment), the comparisons between groups (gender and ethnic groups). Finally, I work on one of the most intriguing phenomena in the field of intelligence, the "Flynn Effect" which highlights the generational increase in IQ scores' ...

http://psyced.umontreal.ca/repertoire-departement/vue/larivee-serge/

This background, no doubt, gives him some impressive insight into the problem of the homeless poor dying on the streets of India

[trotsky]

13. By simply embracing the Catholic teaching that suffering is good, she did bad things.

Those defending her never seem to be able to actually say what it was she did that was *good*, but instead only try to argue that without her, things would have been worse. I wonder how one gets data to support a claim about what would have been.

[Lordquinton]

14. Take it on faith

Search your feelings, you know it to be true!