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Posted on 01/15/2003 11:36:05 AM PST by heyheyhey
A bizarre attack on Mother Teresa published in a national newspaper last week has produced a reaction of surprise and dismay within the Church.
The article, by one of her long-term critics Christopher Hitchens, appeared in The Mirror under the headline 'Why Mother Teresa should not be a Saint' and proceeded to lambast the Vatican decision to beatify the nun in October.
In the article, Mr Hitchens asks why the traditional seven-year interval between the death of a person and their beatification, the standard first step on the path to sainthood, has been ignored in this case.He notes that Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, was first put forward for beatification only four years after her death and also claims only one miracle has been required of her when two are usually asked for.
Mr Hitchens' article comes after he previously published a book in which he accuses the Macedonia-born nun of exploiting her fame and receiving funding from questionable sources such as the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. He claims she was more interested in mixing with the rich and famous than helping the poor in Calcutta and never gave proper account of the huge sums of money donated to her.
Mr Hitchens also slams Mother Teresa's strict views on pro-life and contraception issues, and ends by saying he feels the media have created a 'collective hallucination' of her life.
But Church sources have dismissed Mr Hitchens' broadside, and a spokesman for the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said Mother Teresa was 'an extraordinary woman whose goodness, humility and depth of faith are legendary.'
'We rejoice in her beatification and would fully support the Holy See in the examination of the life and works of Mother Teresa as part of the canonisation process,' he added.
And Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, has outlined her 'heroic virtues' to the Holy Father, saying a 'vast movement' in support of society's most marginalised was launched by Mother Teresa's example.
He also notes that under the present procedure, only one miracle is needed for beatification and a further one for sainthood. The Pope last week officially approved a first miracle directly attributed to Mother Teresa's intercession, which involved the recovery of an Indian woman.
The woman, Monika Besra, had a large ovarian cyst which disappeared completely as she slept shortly after an image of Mother Teresa was placed on her stomach on the anniversary of the nun's death. Her recovery was judged to be totally without any medical explanation by a panel of more than a dozen doctors consulted by the Vatican, and was adjudged to be the one miracle needed for the first stage of the process.
Interesting choice of words. The definition of a legend is "An unverified story handed down from earlier times."
And your comment might have merit if the word "legend" was used. However it wasn't. The word is legendary and one of the definitions of legendary is: Extremely well known; famous or renowned. Disingenuousness is typical modus operandi of lying, ignorant bigots like yourself.
Personally I think it is a public relations move hoping folk will forget the sex scandles
Anti RC isn't a crime.
During your long period of lurking you obviously missed Jim Robinson's admonition to all the Catholic bashers, puke. This isn't a free forum. It belongs to Robinson. You don't like it, hit the road.
It wasn't your argument either you opened your big mouth and it wasn't posted to you.
BTW Come up with something original.Your bigot mantra is old.
I know most papists don't really think for themselves but give it a try.
This is Catholic bashing you well educated buffoon
Why don't you look at the beam in your own eyes before you remove the splinter from his? Your use of an age-old stereotype doesn't convince me much of your own originality. Added to that, you libel a VERY large group of people. You do yourself a great disservice just by posting.
I'll take the log out when i'm done. I'm tired of jerks calling people bigots everytime someone posts something they don't like. Jim Robinson didn't appoint him thought police of these threads.
There was nothing wrong with what was posted. SB just wanted to ridicule somebody. He's nothing more than a condescending boor
Why don't we all chip in and buy him Playstation2 to keep him occupied and out of here?
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