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The War Against Mother Teresa of Calcutta

by Gerard M. Nadal, Ph.D.

Thirteen years after her death, the enemies of Mother Teresa are hard at work trying to suppress the celebration of her life and legacy as we approach the 100th anniversary of her birth this August. Earlier this year there was an attempt to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from issuing a commemorative stamp, written about here.

In the latest round, Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, has refused a request by the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue to light the building in blue and white, the colors of Mother Teresa’s order, on August 26 in honor of the centennial of her birth. This is remarkable, given that last September the Empire State Building draped the iconic New York landmark in red and yellow, the colors of the Chinese flag, in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of Mao’s Communist Revolution.

Donohue responded:

Mother Teresa received 124 awards, including Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Freedom… She built hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, hospices, health clinics, homeless shelters, youth shelters and soup kitchens all over the world … Not surprisingly, she was voted the most admired woman in the world three years in a row in the mid-1990s. But she is not good enough to be honored by the Empire State Building.

A dictator credited with killing 77 million people, whose legacy inspired China’s notorious one-child policy and the sex-selective abortions of hundreds of millions of babies, as well as infanticide claiming millions more, has his movement granted tribute by the Empire State Building. A Roman Catholic nun whose life has done so much more to promote life, to give nurture and succor to hundreds of millions, whose legions of sisters have cared for the poorest among us and afforded them a death with dignity, somehow merits the back of Malkin’s hand. This, on the day that the United States Post Office is issuing a stamp to commemorate that life well lived.

Why? Why this opposition to celebrating the life of one of the twentieth century’s most notable women? The answer goes far beyond a mere caddish and petulant desire to deny a dead religious sister a moment of remembrance. No, this is mendacity. This is a high-stakes war against all that Mother Teresa stood for and all that she continues to accomplish through her millions of disciples.

This is the face of raw malevolence.

Had Mother Teresa stuck to her ministry of hospice, she would be meeting no opposition this year. However, she crossed the red line into the arena of abortion and proclaiming human dignity across the spectrum, from womb to grave. She has touched more than just a nerve. She landed a nuclear warhead with devastating accuracy right in the middle of the enemy’s camp when she addressed the feel-goodism of people who assuage their consciences by winking at abortion in the West and lauding Mother Teresa’s work in India:

Many people are concerned with children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is the greatest destroyer of peace today – abortion which brings people to such blindness.

Worse still for her detractors, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is on the fast track for canonization, as is her good friend and close ally, Pope John Paul the Great. It is impossible to think of one without thinking of the other. Together they laid the foundation for building a culture of life and a civilization of love at the threshold of the 21st century. It’s all right there, in Magisterial documents and in Mother Teresa’s extended network of sisters and disciples.

It was the words and deeds of these two giants that helped sustain me through my scientific training and inspired in me a desire to use my knowledge and skills to join in their vision of a world where science serves humanity, rather than enslaving us all. They are my heroic icons as I contemplate the terrible track that science and medicine are on, having abandoned even the pretext of an ethic and morality of manipulation. But there is hope.

Increasing numbers of scientists and physicians are becoming increasingly more vocal about reining in the excesses, and taking a fresh look at what Mother Teresa and John Paul have had to say. Hence those who would deny the celebration of her 100th birthday this year.

The enemies of life may be putting on a brave face, but they are running scared; in proof whereof, they have resorted to beating on a deceased nun. Not very glamorous, Mr. Malkin.

For those wishing to join the petition to light up the Empire State Building in Mother Teresa’s honor, click here. 

 

Dr. Nadal holds a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology. In addition to teaching for 16 years, he's spent seven years working with homeless teens at Covenant House in Times Square, New York. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in theology through Franciscan University of Steubenville and blogs at http://gerardnadal.com.

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The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.