The People's Bishop

To put it mildly, I find it shocking that a man who has served faithfully the island community for more than twenty-five years with zeal and fatherly care should be slandered so viciously by the media. It is true that the main vilifier is not from our island. But still it is startling to see our Archbishop maligned so cruelly. 

What crimes did he commit? Well, he served his Church loyally and diligently for many many years. He tried to help those in need. He defended those who could not defend themselves. He made himself available to all and sundry. He prays unceasingly for his flock; they say he gets up at 3:00 a.m. every day to pray.   Despite his precarious health, he has no qualms in joining the faithful in the island’s events and in fact he spends most Saturdays of the years going from parish to parish celebrating their fiestas. He is very active in leading his people. He is a true shepherd.

Yes, I was surprised … until I came across a 1050-word article published on Vanity Fair on Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The author is Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken critic of basically everything orthodox. I used to think that Mother Teresa is beyond reproach and above sordid criticism. But no, even she is censured!  Look at what he writes, “She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich … Where did that money, and all the other donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any audit.”  (Money, again, my comment.)

And the conclusion of this article is just awful. “She (Mother Teresa) was a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud, and a church that officially protects those who violate the innocent has given us another clear sign of where it truly stands on moral and ethical questions.”

So, I said to myself, why be surprised if such a good man as our Archbishop is being badmouthed?  It seems to be the lot of the (good) prophets.