Young Mother Theresa, left

I never liked Mother Theresa, despite her reputation as the embodiment of selfless compassion.

She looked kind of sinister, and even smiling she exuded no warmth.

I felt vindicated to learn that she had many critics.

Aroup Chatterjee, a doctor who grew up in Kolkata, published a book in 2003 based on scores of testimonies from people who had worked with her Missionary of Charity and charged that the medical care given to sick and dying people was negligible. Syringes were reused without sterilization, pain relief was non-existent or inadequate, and conditions were unhygienic.

Christopher Hitchens wrote in his book about Mother Theresa that the focus of her work, was

“not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjection”.

Journalist Donal Macintyre spent a week working undercover in a Missionaries of Charity home for disabled children in Kolkata in 2005. He concluded that

“for the most part, the care the children received was inept, unprofessional and, in some cases, rough and dangerous.”

Three years ago, a study by academics at the University of Montreal concluded that the Vatican had ignored Mother Teresa’s

“rather dubious way of caring for the sick, her questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of the enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding … abortion, contraception and divorce.”

Hindu nationalists have claimed that Mother Teresa was a ‘soul harvester’ who proselytized among the poor, and that she and her followers surreptitiously baptized the dying without their knowledge or permission.

Meanwhile, Mother Teresa spent much of her time flying around the world in a private plane to meet political leaders. She procured a fortune in donations but no one knows where the money went.  She refused to make improvements in her ‘hospitals’ – like water heaters – that could have relieved the suffering of those who turned to her for help.

Mother Teresa said that suffering was a gift from God.

I was once admitted to a hospital where a nurse in charge appeared to agree, and it was pretty fucking scary.

She may be a Saint now, but it would make more sense for the sick and needy to pray for a clean emergency room than to ask that bitch for any favors.