Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, "M.C." Member nuns must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor".
The Missionaries of Charity Brothers (active Branch) were founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. In 1984, the Missionaries of Charity Fathers[1] was founded by Mother Teresa with Fr. Joseph Langford, to combine the vocation of the Missionaries of Charity with the ministerial priesthood. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics constitute the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity.
Missionaries care for those who include refugees, ex-prostitutes, the mentally ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, AIDS victims, the aged, and convalescent. They have schools run by volunteers to educate street children, they run soup kitchens, as many other services as per the communities' needs. They have 19 homes in Kolkata (Calcutta) alone which include homes for women, for orphaned children, and for the dying; an AIDS hospice, a school for street children, and a leper colony. These services are provided to people regardless of their religion or social caste.
In 1990, Mother Teresa asked to resign as head of the Missionaries, but was soon voted back in as Superior General. On March 13, 1997, six months before Mother Teresa's death, Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi was selected the new Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity. Sister Mary Prema was elected to succeed Sister Nirmala during a general chapter held in Calcutta in April 2009.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Foundation
In October 1950 Mother Teresa received Vatican permission to start her own order, which the Vatican originally labeled as the Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese, but which later became known as the Missionaries of Charity, whose mission was to care for (in Mother Teresa's words) "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." It began as a small community with 12 members in Calcutta, and today it has over 4,500 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, charity centres worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe and Australia.
In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa's request to expand her congregation to other countries. The congregation started to grow rapidly, with new homes opening all over the globe. The congregation's first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In addition, the first home of the Missionaries of Charity in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries and today is assisted by over one million co-workers and billions of donations.
[edit] Becoming a Missionary of Charity
It takes nine years to become a full fledged member. For one year, candidates become "come-and-see's." At first, potential Sisters work as assistants in Shishu Bhavan and Nirmal Hriday, tending to the patients there. After one year, if the young women still wish to join and are still considered candidates, they choose religious names and begin to study. They study scriptures, Constitutions of Society, church history, and theology. If they aren't from English-speaking countries, they learn to speak it. Novices wear white saris without the three blue stripes. After two years, they take vows, and renew them after the fourth and after the fifth years. They also receive the blue striped sari. In the sixth year, they travel to Rome, or Calcutta, for a year in deep spiritual growth.
A Sister's possessions include: three saris (one to wear, one to wash, one to mend), a pair of sandals, flour sack underclothes, a crucifix and rosary. They also have a plate and metal spoon, a canvas bag, and prayer book. In cold countries, possessions also include a cardigan. They never wear anything but sandals on their feet.
[edit] Controversy
The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in the medical press, notably The Lancet who is owned by Reed Elsevier and the British Medical Journal, which reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis.[3] Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, described the medical care as "haphazard", as volunteers without medical knowledge had to make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors. He observed that the order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment.[4]
The spending of the charity money received has also been criticized by some. Christopher Hitchens and the German magazine Stern have said Mother Teresa did not focus donated money on alleviating poverty or improving the conditions of her hospices, but on opening new convents and increasing missionary work.[5]
Additionally, the sources of some donations accepted and the lack of transparency have been criticized. The Missionaries of Charity accepted donations from the autocratic and corrupt Duvalier family in Haiti and Mother Teresa openly praised them. She also accepted 1.4 million dollars from Charles Keating, involved in the fraud and corruption scheme known as the Keating Five scandal and supported him before and after his arrest. The Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles, Paul Turley, wrote to Mother Teresa asking her to return the donated money to the people Keating had stolen from, one of whom was "a poor carpenter". The donated money was not accounted for, and Turley did not receive a reply.[6]
The Missionaries of Charity do not disclose either the sources of their funds or details of how they are spent. In 1998 an article in the German magazine Stern estimated that the order received about US$50 million a year in donations.[citation needed] Other journalists have given estimates of US$100 million a year.[citation needed] Critics have argued that this money cannot have all been spent on the purpose for which it was donated - aid to the sick and the poor - because the order's facilities, staffed by nuns and by volunteers and offering little in the way of medical facilities, are very cheap to operate and cannot cost anything like these sums to maintain.[citation needed]
In Britain, where the law requires charitable organizations to disclose their expenditures, an audit in 1991 concluded that 7% of the total income of about US$2.6 million went into charitable spending, with the rest being remitted to the Vatican Bank.[citation needed]
Related to this is the accusation that funds donated for relief work for the sick and poor were actually diverted to missionary work in non-Christian countries. Chatterjee alleged that many operations of the order engage in no charitable activity at all but instead use their funds for missionary work.[citation needed] Most[who?] agree that this missionary activity was part of Teresa's calling and that there was nothing wrong with using donated funds for this purpose.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- González-Balado, José Luis; Teresa (1997). Mother Teresa: in my own words. New York: Gramercy Book. ISBN 0-517-20169-0.
- Brian Kolodiejchuk; Mother Teresa (2007). Mother Teresa: come be my light: the private writings of the "Saint of Calcutta". Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-52037-9.
- Christopher Hitchens: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (Verso, 1995) ISBN 1-85984-054-X. Plus a debate in the New York Review of Books : Defense of Mother Teresa, Hitchens' answer, Leys' reply.
[edit] External links
- Mother Teresa Center - ' Mother Teresa Center'
- Missionaries of Charity Fathers - ' Missionaries of Charity Priests Official Website'
- Missionaries of Charity Brothers (active branch)
- Frontline - Mother Teresa of Calcutta article
- Mother Teresa biography at the Nobel Prize foundation site has some information on the history and activities of the Missionaries of Charity.
- Time Magazine 100 Most Important People of the Century
- CNN – Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy
- Eternal Word Television Network - History of the order and bio of Sister Nirmala
- Vatican - Letter by Pope John Paul II on the 50th anniversary of the order in 2000
- Teresa's volunteers (Photo document on volunteers working at Nirmal Hriday in Calcutta, by photographer Wim Klerkx, 1998)
[edit] Sources
- ^ MCpriests.com
- ^ "German Elected to Lead Missionaries of Charity". Zenit News Agency. 2009-03-25. http://www.zenit.org/article-25481?l=english. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
- ^ Loudon, Mary. (1996)The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, Book Review, BMJ vol.312, no.7022, 6 January 2006, pp.64–5. Retrieved August 2, 2007
- ^ Fox, Robin (1994), "Mother Theresa's care for the dying", The Lancet 344 (8925): 807
- ^ Hitchens, Christopher (20 October 2003). "Mommie Dearest". Slate Magazine. Retrieved May 30, 2007
- ^ Hitchens, Christopher (1995). The Missionary Position. London: Verso. pp. 4, 64–71.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
