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- For many, Mother
- Teresa is the
- embodiment of
- Christian good-
- ness and charity.
- She has worked
- tirelessly for the
- dispossessed
- throughout the
- world, and while
- she has not been
- without her
- critics, her
- commitment and
- self-denial are
- beyond doubt
- #
- The needy of the
- slums of Calcutta
- are Mother
- Teresa's parish-
- ioners. She was
- born the daughter
- of an Albanian
- grocer living in
- Skopje, Macedonia.
- At 18, she studied
- in Dublin with the
- Irish sisters of
- Loreto and began
- a life of prayer.
- In 1929 she
- volunteered to
- work in Bengal
- #
- In 1950, Mother
- Teresa founded
- the Mission of
- Charity in a
- former Hindu
- temple in
- Calcutta. She
- came to Britain
- 21 years later for
- the foundation of
- a novitiate in
- Middlesex. She
- returned to India
- via Rome and
- met Pope John
- Paul XXIII
- #
- By 1969, two
- million sick
- people had been
- treated by her
- Mission. Yet, "I
- am unworthy,"
- said Mother
- Teresa, on being
- awarded the
- Nobel Peace Prize.
- She pledged the
- £90,000 prize
- money to build
- more centers for
- the lonely, the ill
- and the dying
- #
- In 1979, Mother
- Teresa won the
- Nobel Peace Prize,
- and was hailed by
- some as a living
- saint. She canceled
- the Nobel banquet,
- ordering that the
- money should go
- instead to feed
- the poor of her
- beloved Calcutta
- @
- Mother Teresa's
- work with the
- poor has,
- paradoxically,
- brought her into
- contact with the
- world's most
- powerful and
- influential people:
- Ronald Reagan,
- Margaret Thatcher,
- even Princess
- Diana, have beaten
- a path to her door
- #
- In 1986 the Pope
- saw for himself
- the work of
- Mother Teresa.
- This was, she
- said, the happiest
- day of her life.
- Later that month,
- the Archbishop of
- Canterbury, Dr
- Robert Runcie,
- also made the
- journey to
- Calcutta
- #
- After meeting the
- homeless in
- London's "card-
- board city",
- Mother Teresa
- went to Downing
- Street and
- appealed to
- Margaret Thatcher
- for help in setting
- up a hostel. At the
- Global Forum on
- Human Survival,
- she described
- abortion as the
- greatest threat
- to the survival of
- the human race
- #
- To some, Mother
- Teresa is a
- religious bigot
- who wields
- considerable
- political power
- under a cloak of
- other-worldly
- humility. A bitter
- debate about her
- in Britain began
- in 1994 after a
- TV program
- described her as
- "Hell's angel"
- #
- Criticism of
- Mother Teresa's
- care for the
- terminally sick
- was more
- damaging than
- attacks on her by
- feminists and
- non-believers,
- because it struck
- at the heart of
- her mission. But
- Mother Teresa's
- saintly image is
- such that it
- makes criticism
- seem malicious
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