The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice Paperback – 6 May 2021

I really enjoyed this book, I thought that despite the short length Hitchen's makes his points clearly and concisely. There is no (that I can see) hyperbole and Hitchens states the facts about Mother Teresa (albeit I will concede, a selective view of the facts)I was slightly surprised that it was so short considering Christopher's love for the written word but leading on from my earlier point, to make this book longer may have been to add pointless filler.I suppose I am more disappointed with the tone of virtually all of the negative reviews I read. Most have something to say along the lines of: "I bet Christopher Hitchens has never done X for charity/the homeless" etc. Well to those people: Christopher Hitchens never claimed otherwise. To say that because he hasn't done these things makes his book bad, simply comes across as a way of avoiding the uncomfortable truths that are revealed in this book.Overall, this book showed me new facts that I did not know before and after my own research I have come to a conclusion in agreement with that of Christopher Hitchens.

This sort of book, which offers an alternative interpretation of the life of Mother Teresa, will always divide opinion, and some have clearly started reading it intending to be offended by this analysis of a human woman with numerous skeletons in the closet, who is nevertheless being fast-tracked to sainthood in spite of her many flaws. Hitchens' approach may seem irreverent - to some degree he probably meant it to be as he was well-known for his antitheistic stance, but this book is still well-researched and offers a negative appraisal that needs to be recognised of a woman who accepted money and hospitality from some truly horrific people, and who appeared less interested in alleviating the suffering of the poorest citizens she claimed to represent than she was in ensuring that they didn't have access to abortions. Regardless of what you think of the subject, or the writer, I would suggest reading this book with an open mind in order to understand the way in which Mother Teresa's reputation is largely a master-stroke of PR.

The first time I became aware of the existence of Mother Theresa was as a child when I was watching a children’s magazine television programme called ‘Blue Peter’. They were reporting on her work and I remember my own mother telling me what an amazing person she was, how she gave up all her time to look after orphans in one of the poorest countries and cities in the world and that she was the ‘kindest’ woman who had ever lived. As a child, of course, I believed every word and I think that even today, years after her death, and a few months after she was made a saint by Pope Francis, I would predict that most people would still feel the same. Unless they had read this fascinating book, which is a result of investigations made by Hitchens into the works and words of Mother Theresa rather than her works and words by reputation.Written in the mid-nineties just a couple of years before her death, Christopher Hitchens provides compelling evidence that shows that this woman was no saint, either by definition or by description. This notion of sainthood come from a television documentary made several years earlier by Malcolm Muggeridge whose sycophantic and lavish toadying did much to define the way in which most people in the world would come to see her. He described a miracle he witnessed (performing a miracle is a key feature of being made a saint) where his cameraman was filming in a very dark room of the orphanage and they believed that it would be wasted film. When the film came to be processed, the picture was bathed in ‘soft light’. Another reason why so many in the world worships this woman is because Calcutta was generally thought to be ‘hell on earth’, a place of darkness, illness, death and misery and this was a perception espoused by Muggeridge. Yet as Hitchens shows, this was definitely not the case.As this slim volume progresses, Hitchens shows just how unsaintly this woman was. This was a woman who was happy to be photographed with some unscrupulous characters. Obviously, the Catholic doctrine was central to her life and yet she was happy to accept money from and be photographed with dictators, fraudsters and blasphemers. An example was John Roger, leader of a cult named ‘The Movement of Spiritual Awareness’ who often described himself of being ‘higher than Jesus Christ’. She was also very happy to accept a donation of over a million dollars from Charles Keating, who was later indicted on some of the most serious fraud charges in American history. During his trial, she wrote to the court pleading for clemency and when the assistant district attorney wrote back listing Keating’s crimes and suggesting that the Christian thing to do would be to return the donated money back to its rightful owners, he received no reply. The money was also never returned.Hitchens goes on to cast doubt even on the opinions that there is still, despite all this, something morally impressive about someone who devotes their life to charity. He argues that Mother Theresa’s work was never done for its own sake but rather to 'propagandize one highly subjective view of human nature and need so that she might one day be counted as the beatific founder of a new order and discipline within the Church itself'. He argues that her work was never designed to relieve suffering but instead was aimed at the 'promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjection'. In other words, Catholicism. Yet, whilst depriving hospital care to her most sick residents, she herself received care in some of the best hospitals in the world when she suffered from heart problems.So, while, this book is now over twenty years old, the recent entry into Sainthood of Mother Theresa makes it extremely relevant and one that people should read if they haven’t already. It will leave you asking questions for sure but for me one is left believing the words of Hitchens when he asserts that she was, 'a religious fundamentalist, a political operative, a primitive sermonizer and an accomplice of worldly, secular powers. Her mission has always been of this kind. The irony is that she has never been able to induce anyone to believe her. It is past that time that she was duly honoured and taken at her word.'

This was a distressing read but I couldn't put it down. As far as I'm aware Mother Teresa has been beatified but not yet canonised (made a saint). I am not religious and find the idea of human beings making other human beings saints laughable and absurd. But that aside Christopher Hitchens has amassed so much evidence regarding her 'treatment and care' of the sick and dying, all of it verifiable and from external witnesses who saw this standard of care for themselves, truly shocking. Especially as MT herself flew out to costly clinics for treatment of her own health issues. Can we begin to imagine the furore if a fraction of this happened in an NHS hospital? It wasn't as if money wasn't available. Millions of pounds were donated by wealthy individuals and by governments - sometimes corrupt governments. Where did the money go? In any other circumstance there would have been a thorough investigation. Perhaps there has ....... How can the Vatican proceed with this canonisation??As I said at the beginning I myself am not a churchgoer but it would seem to be a hugely damaging step for the Church's credibility if it continues with the process. I would also have thought the Catholic Church itself would like a few more answers and more than one decidedly dubious "miracle" to create a saint. Hitch has done a brilliant job putting this well written and well researched book together. Let us hope it was to good purpose.