Not something you want to be seen carrying around campus at a Baptist school, but if you like the way Hitchens writes, there are worse ways to spend an hour or two. ( )

If you venerate Mother Teresa, or even if you just think she was a simple woman who sacrificed herself to aid the world’s poor and you want her to remain on a pedestal, don’t read this book. However, if you like to ask questions and look at things from a different angle than we are fed from the mass media, this is a fascinating book. And at only 98 pages, it’s also a quick read.
Every writer has an agenda, and Christopher Hitchens is less than subtle with his: I’ve heard him declare elsewhere that he has contempt for religion. So I expected a virulent attack on the poor old martyr. But that’s not what he delivered. Although Mother Teresa comes off poorly, his writing is not mean spirited. He looks at facts and events from a fresh perspective, and asks difficult questions. His information is drawn from his personal visit with Mother Teresa in India, and from interviews with medical workers and religious volunteers who assisted her over the years. Highly recommended. ( )

A saint? Give me a break! This woman was a hypocrite, a conniver, a shameless panderer from the wealthy, corrupt, and tyrannical, among whom are included Baby Doc Duvalier, Enver Hoxha of Albania, the Sandanistas in Nicaragua, and Charles Keating. This last “donated” $125 million to Mother Theresa from funds he looted from Lincoln Savings and Loan. The majority of shareholders in this scandal were the working poor and middle class families. Prior to his sentencing, Mother Theresa wrote a letter to the judge asking for mercy for Keating, “as Jesus would do.” When one of the prosecutors pointed out the source of the donation, and turned the tables and asked her “would Jesus keep a gift stolen from the poor?” he received no reply and no refund. A former employee of Mother Theresa reported that one checking account for the convent in Brooklyn contained over $50 million. The money was not to be used for the poor. MT frequently said poverty was a gift and to be born cheerfully. Instead of using the untold hundreds of millions of dollars to alleviate the suffering of the poor and dying, MT used the money to build and outfit convents to attract more members to her order. Most of these buildings boast gold ornaments, gold altar implements, and expensive vestments. When her order was offered an empty building to house the poor, she refused it, because regulations required the installation of an elevator to accommodate the handicapped. MT said that no such convenience should not be available to those that bore a gift from God. The city offered to pay for all renovation, including the elevator, but she refused and the project was abandoned.
Christopher Hitchens testified before the Vatican commission to determine whether or not MT should be moved along toward sainthood with beatification. The purported miracle was debunked by the photographer who shot some footage in a darkened room. He explained that some new, ultra-sensitive film was used.
Her establishments are nothing more than houses of death. They contain the barest of furnishings and rarely provide any pain medication, even aspirin, for those dying of cancer, plague, AIDS, leprosy, and other dreadful illnesses. Suffering, after all, is a gift from God and not to be shortened or alleviated. Interestingly enough, when MT was suffering from heart problems, she checked herself into the finest clinics in the world.
Disgusting.
--Jim, 9/23/07 ( )

Most people will automatically be repelled at the idea of a book exposing the hypocrises and agendas of Mother Teresa, a woman described by many as a modern-day saint. Those who steer away will miss an excellent investigative novel that explores not only the motives of Mother Teresa, but the effect (or lack of) that she had on the world.

Do not fear that this book is simply a character assassination, either. Hitchens does not set out to slander or destroy Mother Teresa, and in fact even defends her in some instances, stating his belief that she was not a spiteful or evil woman, but simply did not do as much as good as she is thought to. A must read for anyone interested in the truth behind the legend. ( )