From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Wed May 31 2000 - 05:51:12 MDT
Charlie Stross wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 30, 2000 at 04:43:33PM -0400, Dan Fabulich wrote:
> >
> > So, this interested me enough that I decided to do a little web
> > research. Not much; I'm no expert.
> >
> > First off, I was struck by the claim that she didn't actually do
> > anything for those likely to survive her treatment. While I was aware
> > of the fact that she administered to the dying, I was also given to
> > understand that she would feed the hungry, cure the sick, etc.
>
> If I remember correctly, her order's assets at the time of her death
> were on the order of US $250M. She was used to being ferried around in
> the executive jets of her friends -- who included some rather dubious
> dictators.
So she took advantage of the guilty offerings of rapscallions to try tu
hustle them to behave a little nicer maybe?
>
> One might argue that if one runs a multinational organisation dedicated
> to looking after the sick and dying, one ought to be spending a _little_
> of that money on medical care. And there's a certain contradiction between
> that vow of obedience, chastity and poverty and a quarter of a billion
> bucks ...
Was that in cash or in the value of all the property on which her
hospices were standing? Was there an endowment that was paying the real
expenses of the order? Just because you take a vow of poverty doesn't
mean you don't get paid anything. All preists and nuns receive meager
stipends, as well as room and board. They typically also get their
college educations paid for by the church (and only some major in
theology).
>
> I'll need to go digging to come up with the exposes I read, and I'd need
> to do a bit more digging to verify them, but the picture I have of Teresa
> of Calcutta is of a scheming bitch whose life-goal was not merely to
> get herself beatified, but to found a holy order that would keep her
> name alive for a thousand years.
You can find plenty of such exposes, if that is the predetermined
picture you wish to illustrate. There are literally thousands of
catholic hating protestants and atheists, who are willing to say just
about anything to prove their point, though I'd say the protestants
might be worse. Try looking up websites affiliated with Bob Jones
University if you are looking for real dirt.
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