In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes Patrick Novacosky to discuss the recent criticisms of Mother Teresa. Patrick dives into the misunderstandings surrounding her life and mission, addressing claims made by critics and highlighting her true impact on the world.
Transcript:
Cy Kellett: Last week, the super popular Joe Rogan podcast had on one of those, what shall we say, geniuses who goes around telling people he knows the hidden and ugly truth about Mother Teresa. We get this from time to time. Patrick, be honest with me. Is there a cover up going on about what a shady character Mother Teresa actually was?
Patrick Novacosky: Well, I have a feeling that if there was this gentleman, Cody Tucker, he would not be the first one to uncover it. Or would Joe Rogan.
Cy Kellett: Right, right.
Patrick Novacosky: It would have been uncovered a long time ago, like, maybe 30 years ago by Christopher Hitchens, who also leveled basically the exact same criticisms at Mother Teresa in his book and documentary and his Extensive research on this woman who, has led so many people to Christ, led so many souls to our Lord Jesus Christ and his church. they fundamentally misunderstood what she was trying to do. So when she came to India she saw that it was a tradition, habit, a cultural thing for people to put their sick and their dying in the street and just let them die there. And as a Christian, as. A woman with a motherly heart, this really tore at her. And she pleaded with Jesus to be able to do something. He called her to start the Missionaries of Charity to pick up the destitute and the Dying off the street. Allow them to die like human beings rather than like dogs and give them restore their dignity. This is really the beauty John Paul taught the inherent dignity of every human person made in God’s image and likeness. Mother Teresa restored dignity by picking up those who were left and discarded and restored that dignity to them. She did not start hospitals, she started a hospice. Many of the people that she ministered to were actually rejected by hospitals. The hospital wouldn’t take care of them. The hospitals kicked them out. So she picked them up, her sisters picked them up, gave them a place to be comfortable and really just again restored their dignity in such a beautiful way. So what, they’re not looking at the people who level these criticisms. Her mission was not to heal them. Her mission was to allow them to die like human beings.
Cy Kellett: And I guess there is a sense that that wasn’t enough, that she should have done something more. I do feel like some of the criticisms. I remember reading some magazine criticisms that that this wasn’t meeting the standards of a hospital. And there just seemed to be no understanding that she wasn’t going to get a First World hospital in the middle of Calcutta in the 1930s and 40s. That just wasn’t going to happen.
Patrick Novacosky: Right. So people judge her by today’s medical standards and not by India in the 1920s, 30s, 40s standards. And the other thing is she heard some of these criticisms in her lifetime and she said, that’s not what I do. If you think that needs to be done, you do it. And some people have, and that’s great. But that wasn’t her call. That wasn’t her charism. That wasn’t her mission. It wasn’t what Jesus asked her to do, just to restore dignity.
Cy Kellett: You saying the name of Jesus there? I think that some of this has. The problem is with Jesus, not with Mother Teresa, in some ways because she said, she said, we’re not social workers. we’re sisters, we’re nuns. and I think that really irked people, that her calling was a religious calling. And I think that frankly, like when I read Hitchens, I just think he doesn’t believe in the religious calling. He thinks it’s all,
Patrick Novacosky: It’s a sham.
Cy Kellett: Yeah, that. That’s a sham itself. So therefore she must be a sham.
Patrick Novacosky: Exactly. Exactly. His worldview is, a 180 from for mother Teresa. Absolutely. And so is Cody’s. I mean, clearly he just doesn’t get it. yeah, the criticism that she gave her money to the Vatican. Well, account. Right. And she, her organization with hundreds of thousands of, of volunteers and homes, hundreds of homes and, and facilities and bills to pay. She’s got to put her money in a bank. So she deposited in the Vatican bank, and boy, she gave her money to the Vatican. Right.
Cy Kellett: Like, Like, like, like every week I give my money to bank of America. I guess when my, my paycheck goes in.
Patrick Novacosky: Yeah,
Cy Kellett: Yeah, yeah. So, so, but what’s the. I mean, where do you think that this comes from? Is it the case that I don’t think people are just. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I mean, I. You, don’t want to think people are just making things up. So Christopher Hitchens and the others who have followed in that line, what are they seeing and maybe misunderstanding in the life of Mother Teresa?
Patrick Novacosky: Yeah, so a couple of things, I think. First of all, they look at someone who’s really genuinely holy, and they think it’s too good to be true.
Cy Kellett: Yeah. Yeah.
Caller: No No way.
Patrick Novacosky: No human being can be that good, that holy, that pious, and really believe everything the Catholic Church teaches. There’s got to be something, that there’s something wrong here. Because in my experience as an atheist, agnostic, whatever, I’ve never met or heard of anyone who is. Comes even close to this. So they, they, they pick one thing, two things. Three things that they think are. That don’t sit well with them, and they dwell on it, but they really don’t dig into, you know, what, what is, what is Mother Teresa’s real mission? What has she actually said? One of the other criticisms was that she proselytized, and all she wanted to do was make converts out of the people who she was picking up off the street. You know, more souls for heaven. That wasn’t her thing either. neither was it for John Paul ii. John Paul said, if you want to be, if you’re. If you’re a Muslim, be a good Muslim. If you’re. If you’re a Jew, be a good Jew. and. But he proposed that the Catholic Church is where you should be. But he didn’t, like, throw his arms around people and draw them into the Catholic Church. He proposed something beautiful. So did Mother Teresa. So her sisters would pray with the destitute and the dying. But, remind me your question again. I kind of got off and.
Cy Kellett: What. No, no, that’s okay, because you were getting to it. Actually. What is. What distinction is she making when she says, we are not social workers, we’re nuns?
Patrick Novacosky: Oh, sure. I mean, social workers, they’re paid organization, the, arm of the government that tries to alleviate some of the social problems. Her intention was that people who are dying could see the face of Jesus before they died in her. So that was really. The call, was that people were discarded. And whether it was AIDS patients in. In D.C. or New York in the 1980s, her sisters were the very first ones to jump in because nobody knew how AIDS was spread. They didn’t know. You know, they thought it was a gay disease. It was kind of like Covid we. When it happened, nobody understood how it moved and everything, but Mother Teresa said, no, we’re going. We’re going to minister to these people no matter what. She. She went to the lepers and before leprosy had had, a cure in India. She was there. She didn’t. She. They really abandoned all. All of their fear of these diseases and just went in because that was their calling. They’re comp. They’re compelled by their love for Christ to be Christ to others. Beautiful story. 1999. She’s no, sorry 1990, early 1990s, she’s in a car going to New Delhi to see John Paul II who had come to India. And she’s with some cardinals. And they’re in the car and. And she tells the driver to pull over. And the cardinal’s like, whoa, whoa, what’s going on? And she said, jesus needs me. She saw a leper by the side of the road. She said, they said, but, Mother, we’re going to be late to see the Pope. She said, the Pope can wait. Jesus needs me. And she got out of the car, she prayed with the person, came back and got in the car, and they went, went off to see John Paul ii. But that was her, she saw people in the crowd that are along the street that other people just had blinders on, wouldn’t see, but she had a heart for the needy, the people who desperately needed Jesus. And that was. That was her. That was her calling. That was her heart. That was her motivation.
Cy Kellett: Our guest is Patrick Novikoski, the author of the brand new book from Catholic Answers Press. It’s called Icons of Mercy, the Faith, Friendship and Legacy of John Paul II and Mother Teresa. You can call and whether you agree with, Patrick or not. 888-318-7884.