Not a fan. Christopher Hitchens exposed much of her bullshit in his book "The Missionary Position". She was a proponent of suffering and did very little, if anything, to help the people who specifically came to her to do so.

Her case provides valuable lessons:. things are not necessarily what they seem; credulous hearts make for blind eyes; no one and nothing should be immune from dutiful scrutiny; religion, morality, charity, and compassion can and will be used as a smokescreen for hideously nefarious ends, just like anything else; common folk can be complicit with evil through attitudes or ignorance, willful or otherwise...

Yeah, it's sick and twisted and makes me angry and sad, but there's value in the lesson nonetheless: there are among us charismatic charlatans in saints' clothing--and the clear-eyed among us would do well to be especially vigilant, because we know how thoroughly and severely people can be duped.

It's always disturbing to learn of a "new low" to the floor of human capabilities --but wouldn't you rather have the knowledge than not?

I think she was a horrible person, but I also believe she was an atheist at heart, for all her bluster. In her diary, she often wonders about the existence of a god. Despite that, she was just an awful person

I personally believe she was one of the most prolific mass murderers of all time. Her missions gained the trust of uneducated, illiterate people with no access to information by providing their almost magic-like treatments, and then used that trust to convince them that condoms were both sinful and ineffective, all in an area of the world with an AIDS epidemic. Who knows how many more millions of people died and will die as a direct result of her actions.

I'm with Christopher Hitchins on this one, a vile little saint.

She was controvercial in life. Her history has been white washed by the Catholic church. Ignorant people believe the church's lies.

Throughout her entire life she was profoundly antiabortion and actively opposed women's rights. Until about midway through her life she was a missionary and teacher who abandoned her post to run compounds for the sick and dying.

That sounds great until you realize those compounds were well documented to have chronic sanitation issues. Her charities collected millions on behalf of the poor - most of it was stashed in secret bank accounts. Worse she took money from African dictators who committed genocide - rumor has it the $ was given for granting medieval style indulgences to those same mass murderers. She gave little more than prayers to victims of natural disaster and war. Yet she spent a lot of $ on her own healthcare.