HVK Archives: Sins of mission: Mother Teresa attacked again
Sins of mission: Mother Teresa attacked again - The Asian Age
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
15 October 1996
Title : Sins of mission : Mother attacked again
Author :
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : October 15, 1996
Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity are under
attack in the West once more, this time over gross ne-
glect of children in homes run by her order.
A former volunteer in her order has charged that "while
the nuns pray, the young, the sick and the dying lie
neglected," going as fir as to describe some cases as
"criminal neglect and criminal assault."
In an article headlined Sins of the missions in the
Guardian, Mr Peter Taylor, a former British Airways
steward who had worked as a volunteer in Mother Teresa's
home Asha Daan in Mumbai, agreed that her work had saved
countless fives but insisted "... there are cases where
there are only two possible descriptions: criminal ne-
glect and criminal assault. It is most unsatisfactory to
say they can't stop it because the nuns are too busy.
Why can't you pray while you dress a wound or change a
nappy? You can't leave children in Profound Pain to go
and pray to God."
Mr Taylor claims he visited one of Mother Teresa's homes
in Mumbai thrice a year between 1984 and 1994 as a volun-
teer but had to "wrest with his conscience for nearly two
years" before deciding to make his criticism public.
His story narrates personal accounts of his involvement
in Asha Daan, with particular reference to two children;
a blind girl called Minu and a paralysed 9-year-old boy
Vincent. Mr Taylor says he was never angrier than the
time he found out Vincent was often beaten. When he
complained to the brother in charge. Mr Taylor says he
was told, "We have no time."
Mr Taylor's experiences with the Missionaries of Charity
in Mumbai have led him to believe that the nuns are more
interested in prayer than care. "Mother Teresa herself
says the work is not the vocation, prayer is the voca-
tion. When the prayer bell rings, the sisters all go off
to pray, leaving the wards in the care of poor, untrained
'ammas'... Some beat the children and the nuns say, this
is the will of God. They need a shift system for the
prayers so that they can supervise ammas," Mr Taylor was
quoted as saying by the Guardian.
He said when he once heard the nuns were going away on a
training course, he asked a sister what the course was
about. The nun's reply. Mr Taylor says, was "The training
is in three parts. The first part is prayer the second
part is more prayer and the third part is extra prayer."
The article, which also complains of "high-handed ar-
rogance towards Western journalists" by sisters of the
order, and Mother Teresa's inaccessibility, says the halo
that surrounds her and her "personal hotline to the
Vatican" protects her from any criticism within the
Indian Catholic Church, and from the media "who only want
to know about the superstar saint it has created."
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