Bad. She believed the poor should suffer, so no matter how many donations people gave her, she kept them in squalid conditions, not allowing the building of modern clinics.

Mother Teresa was a dangerous woman who forbade contraceptives, taught her patients that pain/suffering were ''godly.'' I've said this many times (and wasn't necessarily popular) but she was VERY MUCH into her own egotism.

She was a part of the Catholic machine. I would say "Bad"

Well, I'd have to say that she wore the garb of the order and was a sociopathic bitch. There have been few folks with less empathy who have walked this Earth.

She was a sadistic bitch, she forced poor, sick people to suffer Her religious interpretations of the book of fables.

Can I go with evil or just horrible?

At best: Her Missions of Charity mismanaged donations. At worst: She conned millions of people.

I didn't know her personally but Hitchens definately wasn't a fan.

Nothing motherly about her..

A fundamentalist, a fanatic and a fraud... Christopher Hitchens

Cruel, twisted, evil. She believed people NEED to suffer and so she made sure that they did.

Bad? Try evil, sadistic fraud with delusions of grandeur.

Bad.

Mother Theresa did not believe suffering was a gift from God. That was her gimmick for attention, and possibly an angle that saved the church money from spending on people.

She had medical surgery where she recommended it against those in India who had similar ailments. She promoted poorness as a way of penance when she herself was getting a kickback from the church. Her behavior showed that she clearly thought of herself on a different level then the followers she was advising.

Not just evil, but, as British thespians pronounce it, EE-vee-ill. It needs three syllables to really bring out the degree to which she was harmful. (Of course those who know me know I wouldn't use a theologically loaded word like "evil" normally, but I'll make a stylistic exception in this case).

Look into it from sources not connected with the RCC's efforts to canonize / beatify her, and you'll quickly be aghast.

The only thing about her that gives me some compassion is that she was actually a very miserable human being, in the sense of abject personal suffering; early in her life she was motivated by a positive subjective personal experience of god, which left her and which she was never able to rekindle. In that sense, she's a poster child for Catholic self-loathing. She went through the motions of life, profoundly depressed, publicly putting on a brave front, and no one, not even Mother Theresa, should have to do that.

I rather think that some of her idiotic notions of Cathlic suffering porn and denial of pain killers to the dying and so forth, was probably some form of projection of her own personal issues. Sort of, "if I can't enjoy life, then neither can anyone else". Well okay, so then there goes my empathetic feelings again ...

Learned about her here from other site members. Not such a nice lady.

Bad, told third world women not to breast feed and not to use birth control. Pushed Nestle formula.

Evil bitch. Withheld medication from suffering poor, because it made them "closer to god." If there were a hell, she would be burning in it.

Bad. She beleived in suffering. Her Jesus suffered and it is only by suffering that you get to god. The sadistic bitch thought if she could make you suffer she was doing her job right. She had a lot of weird beliefs.

I believe what Chris Hitchens said about her.

Mother Theresa no longer exists so totally inconsequential.

One of the worst people who ever lived.

She was an evil, scheming fraud. I wish I could believe that she would spend eternity experiencing the misery she doled out so copiously to others.

Hitchen's documentary "Hell's Angel" was inspired by Aroup Chatterjee's book " Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict". I highly recommend it (Mr. Chatterjee's book), as it contains exensive documentation.

I don't think anyone has mentioned that Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (I have a hard time calling her "Mother" ) hobnobbed with dictators like the Duvaliers of Haiti, and Charles Keating, who bilked 23,000 investors out of their savings and was a key figure in the Savings and Loan Scandal of the 80s and 90s.

The archabbot of the monastery where / when I was attending college knew Mother Theresa personally. A few years earlier, he had cancer and wrote to her asking for her prayers on his behalf as he underwent treatment. Her reply (in a letter that was on display for a time during my tenure) was, almost word for word, "Your illness is Christ kissing you from the cross. Would you have me ask him to stop kissing you?" The archabbot and many others at the monastery lauded this response, but one of my philosophy professors, though devoutly Catholic, was especially critical of her comments. In the years that followed, I learned of how she operated her mission and I recalled her letter, and I see it now in an even harsher light than I did at the time, because I recognize what a fetish she had for pain and suffering. I see just how much she believed that agony was critical for bringing people to the Church. I see her for the evil incarnate that she was. And, while it's true that she's dead, I don't agree with those who say it's of no consequence today. That's, to a lesser degree, like saying that Hitler's dead so it doesn't matter what he did regarding the Jews. We should learn from history, understand these motivations, and not allow similar movements to take root in the future. The fact is that Mother Theresa was and still is revered by Catholics, other Christians, and even the secular world, who believe her ministry was a force for good that alleviated suffering and poverty despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And her ministry still exists, though I don't know how much has changed in their operations since her death. We should never allow ourselves to forget what horrific behavior can be tolerated or ignored just because someone pretends to be holy. This is that dangerous space where belief manifests as harmful action (or inaction, as the case may be), and we should always be on guard against that.

I find it hard to judge because you never really know what brought someone to that kind of conclusion - To me it sounds totally out of wack, but I am not religious and I can't really imagine anyone saying this unless it was a comfort to someone who was suffering and did have a god.
proseletysers seem to speak in a different language to the rest of us so maybe thats why we don't get the comfort that is only really in 'believer territory"