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01413_Field_172.cap.txt
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1996-03-14
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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
@