Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony on September 4, Pope Francis announced on Tuesday.
Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, became an international icon of charity in the 20th century. However, there is also a bitter debate about the merits of Teresa’s charitable work and the nature of her legacy.
Even Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had criticised her intentions.
“It’s good to work for a cause with selfless intentions. But Mother Teresa’s work had ulterior motive, which was to convert the person who was being served to Christianity,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said at the opening of an orphanage in Rajasthan state is 2015. “In the name of service, religious conversions were made. This was followed by other institutes, too.”
However, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen chose the moment to showcase her anguish through a couple of tweets.
Mother Teresa will be made a Saint! Woman who took money from corrupt ppl, who let poor sick ppl die w/out medical treatment,will be a Saint
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) March 15, 2016
‘Mother Teresa was a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.’
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) March 15, 2016
The controversy surrounding Mother Teresa is far from new and it shows once again that she has her fair share of critics too.
