The Jharkhand government in eastern India has asked Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity nuns to reopen their orphanage. The orphanage was shut down 16 months ago as police began probing baby-selling charges against the nuns. The orphanage is attached to a care centre the nuns run for unwed mothers. The government closed the orphanage after police Read more
New research carried out by the University of Birmingham’s Gëzim Alpion concludes that Mother Teresa’s dark night of the soul was triggered by childhood and that she had gnawing doubts about the existence of God to the end of her life. Dr Gëzim Alpion, who is based in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Read more
The superior of Mother Teresa’s order Missionaries of Charity, says an employee and two nuns from the hospital that cares for single mothers have been arrested. They allegedly sold a newborn to a couple for about €1,500. The three women have been taking newborns from single mothers and then selling them. “We are completely shocked Read more
The new Swedish cardinal, Anders Arborelius, has suggested Pope Francis consider creating a special advisory body of women. Their role would be similar to that of the College of Cardinals and would offer more opportunity for women’s leadership in the church. Francis made Arborelius Sweden’s first cardinal in a consistory on Wednesday. He said he Read more
It is always tempting to see the saints, not as individuals with the very human struggles that afflict us all, but surrounded with an aura of sanctity, symbolised by a halo. This does the saints a disservice as it dehumanises them; it does us a disservice as they seem too far removed from our own lives Read more
While she was head of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa kept a list of ways to be humble for the sisters in her care. Speak as little as possible about yourself. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others. Avoid curiosity (she is referring to wanting to know things that should Read more
I did not expect that arranging an interview with Mother Teresa would be difficult. As Time magazine’s bureau chief in New Delhi in the late 1980s and ’90s, I frequently interviewed prime ministers, generals, political leaders and just about anyone in the news in south Asia. But repeated phone calls to the motherhouse of the Read more
New Zealand’s sceptic community says Mother Teresa wasn’t all she was cracked up to be. The late Catholic nun and missionary has been declared a saint, which requires a candidate to perform at least two miracles during their lifetime. Mark Honeychurch from the NZ Skeptics Society says the two supposed miracles that led the way Read more
When I first arrived at the shelter for unmarried, pregnant women in Washington, D.C., to start my position as a live-in housemother for the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s Sisters), I wasn’t quite sure what to think. The home was a lovely house located in a ritzy upper class neighborhood, complete with a white picket Read more
Allow me to share with you one of the high points of my life – a short, yet deeply enriching encounter with a saint. Nearly 30 years ago, I worked at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington’s emergency food warehouse. Missionaries of Charity sisters caring for HIV/AIDS patients at their Gift of Peace House Read more