Mother Teresa: A Biography (14 page)

THE MEETING POINT

In 1968, Oliver Hunkin, head of religious programming for the BBC, called upon noted British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, to ask whether he would do a short television interview with a relatively unknown nun from India. Hunkin’s choice of Muggeridge was inspired. Muggeridge was well known for his agnosticism and mocking attitude toward organized religions. Having briefly entertained thoughts of becoming a priest at a young age, Muggeridge instead chose journalism as a career. However, he never completely let go of his deep Christian feelings, and much later in life returned to the Church. But for now, Muggeridge was a bit put out at the thought of conducting this interview, particularly since Hunkin had not given him much notice in order for him to prepare.

Muggeridge had never heard of Mother Teresa, but the next afternoon he found himself making his way to the Holy Child Convent in London to do the interview. Mother Teresa, looking visibly nervous, answered Muggeridge’s questions in a small, halting voice. Gently, he led her through the story of her mission and what she hoped to accomplish, and avoided controversial questions completely; nor was there any appeal for donations on her part. At one point, Muggeridge feared that he would not be able to keep the interview going for the full 30 minutes. When the completed interview was broadcast for BBC executives, there was even some question about whether the lackluster and ordinary exchange should be televised.

But in the end, the interview aired in May 1968 on the BBC Sunday-night series,
Meeting Point.
The response was as unexpected as it was spectacular. So many British viewers were moved by the story of Mother T H E G R OW T H O F A M I R A C L E

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Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, that within 10 days of the broadcast, £9,000 ($16,000 in 2004 dollars) were donated to the organization.

Another story credits the interview with raising £25,000 (approximately $45,000 in 2004 dollars). Although the actual figure is in dispute, one thing is not: Mother Teresa struck a chord with the public. BBC officials were so taken aback by the response to the interview that they broadcast it again with even more donations coming in for the Missionaries of Charity.

AN ACTUAL MIRACLE?

What, on the surface, appeared to have been a run-of-the-mill interview had a very profound effect on Malcolm Muggeridge. Later, he admitted that when he first saw Mother Teresa walk into the room, she appeared unique and significant. He was also very excited about the possibility of working with her again and asked the BBC to send him to Calcutta where he could film Mother Teresa in action.

In the spring of 1969, Muggeridge, accompanied by a cameraman and producer, left for Calcutta. Although initially reluctant to agree to the request, Mother Teresa eventually relented and gave the film crew her full cooperation. For the next five days, Muggeridge and his team followed Mother Teresa as she went about her daily routine. But it was the filming at Nirmal Hriday in which Muggeridge later claimed to have witnessed a photographic miracle.

Initially, both Muggeridge and Kenneth Macmillan, the cameraman, were reluctant to shoot inside the home because of the dimly lit interior.

As it was, Macmillan had only a small light with him, and to get adequate light seemed an impossible task. However, he had recently purchased some new Kodak film, which he had not tried yet. He decided to go ahead and shoot footage inside Nirmal Hriday using the new film. When Muggeridge and his team returned to London, they began work on the documentary. Several weeks later, as they were reviewing rushes, or the unedited film footage, they watched for the first time the sequence shot at Nirmal Hriday. Macmillan recounted what happened next: It was surprising. You could see every detail. And I said: “That’s amazing, that’s extraordinary.” And I was going to say . . . three cheers for Kodak. I didn’t get a chance to say that though because Malcolm, sitting in the front row, spun round and said:

“It’s divine light! It’s Mother Teresa. You’ll find that it’s divine light old boy.”1

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Macmillan also found himself besieged over the next several days by newspaper reporters asking him about the miracle he had witnessed.

The completed documentary
Something Beautiful for God
was shown for the first time in December 1969. It was a resounding success. Later, Muggeridge, Macmillan, and Peter Chafer, the producer, credited Mother Teresa for the film’s reception, citing her as an extremely charismatic presence. However, both Chafer and Macmillan were reluctant to attribute the extraordinary lighting sequence at Nirmal Hriday to Divine Providence, even though when Macmillan used the film again in a low-light situation he got poor results.

The documentary not only boosted Mother Teresa’s image worldwide, it also had an impact on the Missionaries of Charity. As a result of the film, there was a visible increase in the numbers of young women wishing to join the order. In 1970, a year after the documentary aired, 139 new candidates were received by the Missionaries of Charity. The new arrivals came from all over: Pakistan, Ceylon, Nepal, Malaysia, Yugoslavia, Germany, Malta, France, Mauritania, Ireland, Venezuela, Italy, and India.

The total of the entire congregation stood at 585, of which 332 were fully professed nuns, 175 novices, and 78 postulants, a remarkable achieve-ment for an order barely two decades old.

NOTE

1. Anne Sebba,
Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image
(New York: Doubleday, 1997), p. 83.

Chapter 9

BLESSINGS AND BLAME

Thanks to the amazing success of the documentary
Something Beautiful for
God,
Mother Teresa no longer just belonged to Calcutta or to India. She belonged to the world. Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who now emerged as one of Mother Teresa’s most vocal and supportive champions, went on to write a book published under the same title in 1971. Using the transcript from the film as the basis of the text and incorporating many black and white photographs, the book illustrated Mother Teresa’s work and life. Muggeridge also included nine pages of Mother Teresa’s sayings, stating that, since Mother Teresa would never write about herself or her work, there should be a record of her own words.

The book enjoyed phenomenal success. It has rarely gone out of print, and over 30 years, has sold more than 300,000 copies. It has been reprinted 20 times and has been translated into 13 languages. Upon his death in 1990, Muggeridge donated the royalties from the book to Mother Teresa, the sum of which is about £60,000.

Between the film, the book, and Mother Teresa’s own globe-trotting, both she and her order were very much in the public eye. Although that visibility was beneficial, particularly as Mother Teresa was trying to raise funds and awareness of the world’s poor, it also left her vulnerable to growing dissent, criticism, and accusations. Despite Muggeridge’s predictions that Mother Teresa would one day be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, her application for the coveted award was rejected three times.

NEW ADVENTURES

During the 1970s Mother Teresa continued her travels, both speaking and opening new homes for the Missionaries of Charity. The decade 1 0 6

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opened with a home established in Amman, Jordan. In December 1970, a novitiate, or center to train newcomers, opened in England; homes for the Missionaries opened in London’s Paddington District and the Bronx, New York City in 1971. Mother Teresa and her Missionaries did not shy away from the world’s troubled spots: in 1972, a new foundation opened in Belfast, Northern Ireland; in 1973, Mother Teresa opened another foundation working with the 380,000 Arab refugees who lived and worked in the Israeli-occupied Gaza strip. And so it continued throughout the decade with the high point coming in 1979 when the Missionaries of Charity opened 14 new foundations. As her missions spread across the world, Mother Teresa enjoyed the support of many world leaders. In the United States alone, she counted among her champions the wealthy Democratic Kennedy family and former Republican president Richard M. Nixon.

She also began receiving a number of honors. Her first came in 1962 when she was awarded the Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. That same year she received the Padma Shri, known as the Magnificent Lotus, India’s second highest award. First, after hearing the news that she won, Mother Teresa would not accept it. However, after receiving permission, she traveled to New Delhi to accept the award from the president of India at that time, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

In many cases, the awards came with substantial cash prizes. For instance, the money received from the Magsaysay award was used to purchase a home for children. In January 1971, Mother Teresa traveled to Rome where she accepted a check from Pope Paul VI for £10,000 (appx.

$17,000) after being awarded the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. That money was directed toward the building of a leper colony on land donated by the Indian government. In 1971, she again traveled to New Delhi to accept from the Indian government the Nehru Award for International Understanding. In 1973, Mother Teresa became the first recipient of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. She was chosen out of a field of 2,000 nominations by a panel of judges representing the world’s major religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

In every case, Mother Teresa graciously accepted each award in the name of the world’s poor.

BATTLING SPIRITUAL POVERTY

Mother Teresa was most familiar with the conditions of the poor in Third-World countries; however, when confronted with the poverty in Western countries, she was not only shocked but appalled. On more than one occasion, she noted with some irony how people in the West sent do-B L E S S I N G S A N D B L A M E

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nations to her to help the poor in India, when at the same time they turned their backs on those in their own countries who were suffering and forgotten. In many areas, the Missionaries of Charity opened up Homes of Compassion for the destitute men and women living on the streets. The nuns also made a point of checking on the elderly and lonely who had no one to look after them.

For Mother Teresa, the poverty that confronted her in such societies as the United States and Great Britain was more a poverty of the spirit. It came in the form of loneliness and being unwanted, plaguing the homeless, the drifters, the alcoholics, and the mentally ill left to fend for themselves. What Mother Teresa found so troubling, as she traveled through the rough neighborhoods of London or New York City, was society’s response to these people: shunning them, abandoning them, or leaving them at the mercy of those who were stronger.

Yet, Mother Teresa did not pass judgment on those societies. Instead, she tried to point out as gently as she could that God did not make the poor people in the world, nor did he create poverty and disorder. Rather, it was because people did not share enough with one another that some had plenty and others went without. When faced with the criticism that helping all the needy in the world was a never-ending and hopeless task, she replied that she and her sisters used themselves to save whom they could, when they could. If pressed hard to reason out her mission as a result of that first foray into the Calcutta slums over 20 years before, she might have been astounded to learn that she and her order had saved tens of thousands of lives. But numbers were meaningless to Mother Teresa; for her, each small act, each kindness extended toward those in need, was done in the name of Christ. That was all.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

As the number of foundations grew, Mother Teresa’s schedule became more hectic. Because she kept close watch on the order, leading by example, it was important that she visit every motherhouse she could to check on the day-to-day goings on. For instance, she believed that the sisters must not waste any donations because others had sacrificed in order that they have them. Medicine and food were to be distributed as soon as possible to prevent spoilage. She asked that the priests who assisted in the spiritual welfare of the sisters not interfere in the internal affairs of the houses, particularly when it came to observing their vows of poverty. At no time should a congregation raise its standard of living; this meant going without simple things such as curtains for the motherhouse or bed-1 0 8

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spreads, which were invariably given away. Donations of washing machines, carpets, or other creature comforts were also given away. As Mother Teresa continually reminded her sisters, the poor did without and so must they.

She wrote to each house as often as possible offering advice, wisdom, and comfort to her growing number of sisters. She wrote to parents thank-ing them for their daughters who had given their lives in service to God.

She reminded her nuns to be cheerful and smile, as God needed and loved those who gave of themselves cheerfully. A cheerful disposition also attracted those who might be seeking a vocation with the Missionaries of Charity. She shared news of her travels, her visits with dignitaries, and humorous incidents that had occurred.

Even as she was becoming more well known, Mother Teresa remained as unobtrusive as possible. She commonly slept in the luggage racks of third-class train compartments or shared a seat on a train or a bus between the wife of a farmer and some livestock. On those occasions when she had a seat to herself, she made the most of it, using the time for reflection, often writing small notes or letters to her sisters and benefactors.

Yet, she declined the offers of regular income that were beginning to arise more frequently. She emphasized repeatedly that fund-raising was not her work, fearing that the Missionaries of Charity would become a business rather than a labor of love. She squarely placed her life and that of her congregations in God’s hands, fully trusting that Providence would provide for her needs in helping the poor. Her rejections of some donations were on the face of it astounding, yet completely in character. Once she rejected an offer from New York City’s Cardinal Terence Cooke, which would provide $500 a month for each Sister working in Harlem, asking him if he believed that God was going to be bankrupt in New York City.

LOSS AND FAILINGS

The 1970s were an extraordinary period of growth for the Missionaries of Charity and of growing recognition for Mother Teresa. Still, the decade was not without its low points as Mother Teresa suffered both personal losses and public failures. She may also have come to realize that not all things were possible through faith and love alone.

The year 1970 began with a troubling letter from her sister Aga, who was living with their mother in Tirana, Albania. Drana was in ill health and her condition was worsening. On top of that, life under communist rule was extremely difficult and the two were having a hard time making B L E S S I N G S A N D B L A M E

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ends meet. For Mother Teresa, this was a bitter blow; her divine Providence, which had made possible the impossible, seemed strangely absent now. But she took the news with a strong heart, yet sad that there was nothing she could do to help her mother and sister when she had found ways to help so many others around the world.

Yet, June 1970, Mother Teresa had a bittersweet homecoming. The Red Cross extended an invitation to her to visit Yugoslavia. From there she made the journey to Prizren, where her family originated, and then traveled to Skopje, the city of her birth. Here she met with the local bishop and visited the shrine at Letnice, where she had often visited to pray and meditate as a young girl. She made it known that she hoped one day to return to Skopje to open a Missionary of Charity home.

Later that year, Drana wrote to her son Lazar stating that her only wish was to see him, his family, and her daughter Gonxha before she died. Both Lazar and Mother Teresa worked hard to bring Aga and Drana to Italy for a reunion. At one point, Mother Teresa, while on a visit to Rome, paid a visit to the Albanian embassy seeking permission to bring her mother and sister to Italy. Lazar, though limited in what he could do, tried working with Catholic Relief Services to help relocate Aga and Drana in the event that they would be allowed to leave. These attempts proved futile: the Albanian government refused to permit either Aga or Drana to leave the country.

Mother Teresa then thought about traveling to Albania. But, to her dismay, she learned that while she might be allowed to enter the country, communist authorities could very well prevent her from leaving. Finally, on July 12, 1972, Mother Teresa received word that her mother had died.

Not more than a year later, on August 25, 1973, more sad news came, when she learned that her sister Aga had also died. Mother Teresa’s pain and grief were not so much for herself, but for the mother and sister who suffered.

The Missionaries of Charity also suffered severe setbacks during the 1970s. In 1971, after much fanfare, the order opened a house in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the Catholic ghetto of Ballymurphy. Belfast was, at the time, a city under siege, as Catholic and Protestant factions engaged in almost daily violence. Mother Teresa sent four sisters who came with a violin and two blankets each. The house where they were to live had been previously occupied by a priest who had been shot just as he had finished administering last rites to a wounded man. The house was completely empty and had been the target of vandals. Undaunted, the sisters began working with a small group of Anglican nuns in the hope of helping to end strife in the city.

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After only 18 months in Belfast, the sisters left, stating that they were unwanted and saw no need to risk further danger to themselves. Mother Teresa preferred to see their leaving, however, not as a failure, but as a call, for the sisters were obviously needed somewhere else. She sent them to Ethiopia where they were to help victims of a terrible drought that ravaged the country.

During the 1980s, the Missionaries of Charity experienced more bad luck, when in March 1980 someone set a fire at a home for destitute women run by the order in Kilburn, London. Ten residents of the shelter and one volunteer died in the blaze. The arsonist was never found. In 1986, two sisters were drowned in Dehra Dun, India, when a wooden bridge collapsed during a heavy rain, sending their ambulance into the river below. Although Mother Teresa offered prayers for the dead, no doubt both incidents weighed heavily upon her.

Even more painful for Mother Teresa was the number of professed sisters choosing to leave the Missionaries of Charity. Of the original 12

women who became the order’s first nuns, two eventually left, as well as a small number of others over the years. Their reasons for leaving were many: some chose to serve God in another way, others wished to leave because of ill health. Some even fell in love and wished to marry and raise families. Mother Teresa did not resent the women’s choices; in fact she often thanked them for their time and effort in their service to the order.

Still, it clearly saddened her to lose members.

Despite these setbacks, the Missionaries of Charity continued to grow.

By 1979, there were 158 foundations established throughout the world.

There were 1,187 professed sisters, 411 novices, and 120 postulants. What was perhaps most amazing about the continued growth of the order was that it came at a time when religious vocations for the Church were generally on the decline. It appeared that the total commitment to a life of poverty and the complete surrender of the self in the service of God held tremendous appeal for women everywhere. For Mother Teresa, the continued arrival of newcomers ready to work for the poor was heartwarming.