Mother Teresa & Abortion

[Cleita]

42. What your cousin says is true for most religious organizations, both for nuns and monks

within the Catholic Church. Your cousin said:

Livermore found what she called Mother Teresa's "theology of suffering" to be flawed, despite being a good and courageous person. Though Mother Teresa instructed her followers on the importance of spreading the Gospel through actions rather than theological lessons, Livermore could not reconcile this with some of the practices of the organization

I had seven friends from school who entered the convent. Only one is still a nun today. They cited reasons similar to your cousin but what it all really comes to is not being suitable for the religious life. They left the convent for various reasons and at various times but to a one it sort of boiled down to this. The vows of poverty and chastity were easy to keep. It was the vow of obedience that was the deal breaker.

Absolute obedience to your mother superior does not make for a democratic institution and those who question the flawed decisions of the Queen so to speak will become disillusioned. Those people are not suitable for the religious life. They can't accept unquestioned dictates to their actions. Yes, it could be considered infantilization, but it's how the system works. Mother Teresa's organization is no different than most of the other religious orders around the world. It doesn't mean that the good done, often with tremendous sacrifice, both individually and collectively, should be dumped in the trash.

As far as taking money from questionable sources, I don't think there is a charity or church in the universe that doesn't.

Many religious organizations do wonderful work but are often flawed in the way they go about it.