Here's a brief excerpt from the eurekalert document - it's a quote from Hitchens quoting Mother Teresa:

"There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ's Passion. The world gains much from their suffering," was her reply to criticism, cites the journalist Christopher Hitchens.

Trying to find value and meaning and dignity in suffering has long been part of the tradition of Catholic spirituality, and probably also in other schools of spirituality - the Book of Job, for example; and the rabbi who wrote Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People. And forgiving the person who causes the suffering is part of it.

That's not the same as condoning or encouraging or promoting the injustice that caused the suffering, but that appears to be the implication from Hitchens. There is no evidence that Mother Teresa condoned or approved such injustice, and it is ludicrous for Hitchens to condemn her for doing so.

And as for the accusations of unsanitary conditions and improper medical practices in the facilities Mother Teresa operated - Princess Diana visited some of those facilities and promoted the work of Mother
Teresa. No doubt, Diana was accompanied by many reporters and photographers from the legitimate press - why didn't Diana and her reporters uncover these abuses, if they existed?

Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity have founded convents and facilities for the poor in the United States. I know only of their operations in San Francisco and Sacramento. They have a reputation for being spartan, but fastidiously clean. And the nuns are not lavish or wasteful in any way. They know how to stretch their financial resources.

Then again, I don't particularly like them because they're far too conservative for me - but I can't find fault with them otherwise.

In my experience, most people who work with the poor, are good folks - even if I don't agree with their ideology. I don't agree with the Hitchens propaganda for the simple reason that it just doesn't make sense - what reason would Mother Teresa have to be as wicked as Hitchens describes her to be? Why would being so wicked be to her advantage?

-Joe-