Jesus Is Borg The Truth Shall Set You Free.

MOTHER TERESA - WHERE ARE HER MILLIONS?
By Walter Wuellenweber
 

The Angel of the poor died a year ago. Donations still flow in to her
Missionaries of Charity like to no other cause. But the winner
of the Nobel Peace Prize vowed to live in poverty. What then, happened to so
much money?

If there is a heaven, then she is surely there: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu from
Skopje in Macedonia, better known as Mother Teresa.
She came to Calcutta on the 6th of Januray 1929 as an 18 year old sister of the
Order of Loreto. 68 years later luminaries from all
over the world assembled in Calcutta in order to honour her with a state
funeral. In these 68 years she had founded the most successful
order in the history of the Catholic church, received the Nobel Peace Prize and
became the most famous Catholic of our time.

Are doubts permitted, regarding this "monument"?

In Calcutta, one meets many doubters.

For example, Samity, a man of around 30 with no teeth, who lives in the slums.
He is one of the "poorest of the poor" to whom Mother
Teresa was supposed to have dedicated her life. With a plastic bag in hand, he
stands in a kilometre long queue in Calcutta's Park
Street. The poor wait patiently, until the helpers shovel some rice and lentils
into their bags. But Samity does not get his grub from
Mother Teresa's institution, but instead from the Assembly of God, an American
charity, that serves 18000 meals here daily.

"Mother Teresa?"says Samity, "We have not received anything from her here. Ask
in the slums -- who has received anything from the sisters
here -- you will find hardly anybody."

Pannalal Manik also has doubts. "I don't understand why you educated people in
the West have made this woman into such a goddess!" Manik was born some 56
years ago in the Rambagan slum, which at about 300 years of age, is Calcutta's
oldest. What Manik has achieved, can
well be called a "miracle". He has built 16 apartment buildings in the midst of
the slum -- living space for 4000 people. Money for the
building materials -- equivalent to DM 10000 per apartment building -- was
begged for by Manik from the Ramakrishna Mission [a
Indian/Hindu charity], the largest assistance-organisation in India. The
slum-dwellers built the buildings themselves. It has become a
model for the whole of India. But what about Mother Teresa? "I went to her
place 3 times," said Manik. "She did not even listen to what
I had to say. Everyone on earth knows that the sisters have a lot of money. But
no one knows what they do with it!"

In Calcutta there are about 200 charitable organisations helping the poor.
Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity are not amongst the
biggest helpers: that contradicts the image of the organisation. The name
"Mother Teresa" was and is tied to the city of Calcutta. All
over the world admirers and supporters of the Nobel Prize winner believe that
it must be there that her organisation is particularly
active in the fight against poverty. "All lies," says Aroup Chatterjee . The
doctor who lives in London was born and brought up
in Calcutta. Chatterjee who has been working for years on a book on the myth of
Mother Teresa, speaks to the poor in the slums of
Calcutta, or combs through the speeches of the Nobel Prize winner. "No matter
where I search, I only find lies. For example the
lies about schools. Mother T has often stated that she runs a school in
Calcutta for more than 5000 children. 5000 children! -- that
would have to be a huge school, one of the biggest in all of India. But where
is this school? I have never found it, nor do I know
anybody who has seen it!" says Chatterjee.

Compared to other charitable organisations in Calcutta, the nuns with the 3
blue stripes are ahead in two respects: they are world
famous, and, they have the most money. But how much exactly, has always been a
closely guarded secret of the organisation. Indian law
requires charitable organisations to publish their accounts. Mother Teresa's
organisation ignores this prescription! It is not known if
the Finance Ministry in Delhi who would be responsible for charities' accounts,
have the actual figures. Upon STERN's inquiry,
the Ministry informed us that this particular query was listed as "classified
information".

The organisation has 6 branches in Germany. Here too financial matters are a
strict secret. "It's nobody's business how much money
we have, I mean to say how little we have," says Sr Pauline, head of the German
operations. Maria Tingelhoff had had handled the
organisation's book-keeping on a voluntary basis until 1981. "We did see 3
million a year," she remembers. But Mother Teresa never quite
trusted the worldly helpers completely. So the sisters took over the financial
management themselves in 1981. "Of course I don't know how
much money went in, in the years after that, but it must be many multiples of 3
million," estimates Mrs Tingelhoff. "Mother was
always very pleased with the Germans."

Perhaps the most lucrative branch of the organisation is the "Holy Ghost" House
in New York's Bronx. Susan Shields served the order
there for a total of nine and a half years as Sister Virgin. "We spent a large
part of each day writing thank you letters and
processing cheques," she says. "Every night around 25 sisters had to spend many
hours preparing receipts for donations. It was a conveyor
belt process: some sisters typed, others made lists of the amounts, stuffed
letters into envelopes, or sorted the cheques. Values were
between $5 and $100.000. Donors often dropped their envelopes filled with money
at the door. Before Christmas the flow of donations was
often totally out of control. The postman brought sackfuls of letters --
cheques for $50000 were no rarity." Sister Virgin
remebers that one year there was about $50 million in a New York bank account.
$50 million in one year! -- in a predominantly non-
Catholic country. How much then, were they collecting in Europe or the world?
It is estimated that worldwide they collected at least
$100 million per year -- and that has been going on for many many years.

While the income is utter secret, the expenditures are equally mysterious. The
order is hardly able to spend large amounts. The
establishments supported by the nuns are so tiny (inconspicuous) that even the
locals have difficulty tracing them. Often "Mother
Teresa's Home" means just a living accomodation for the sisters, with no
charitable funstion. Conspicuous or useful assistance cannot
be provided there. The order often receives huge donations in kind, in addition
to the monetary munificence. Boxes of medicines land at
Indian airports. Donated foograins and powdered milk arrive in containers at
Calcutta port. Clothing donations from Europe and the
US arrive in unimaginable quantities. On Calcutta's pavement stalls, traders
can be seen sellin used western labels for 25 rupees (DM1)
apiece. Numerous traders call out, "Shirts from Mother, trousers from Mother."

Unlike with other charities, the Missionaries of Charity spend very little on
their own management, since the organisation is run at
practically no cost. The approximately 4000 sisters in 150 countries form the
most treasured workforce of all global multi-million dollar
operations. Having taken vows of poverty and obedience, they work for no pay,
supported by 300,000 good citizen helpers.
By their own admission, Mother Teresa's organisation has about 500 locations
worldwide. But for purchase or rent of property, the
sisters do not need to touch their bank accounts. "Mother always said, we don't
spend for that," remembers Sunita Kumar, one the
richest women in Calcutta and supposedly Mother T's closest associate outside
the order. "If Mother needed a house, she went
straight to the owner, whether it was the State or a private person, and worked
on him for so long that she eventually got it free."
Her method was also successful in Germany.In March the "Bethlehem House" was
dedicated in Hamburg, a shelter for homeless women. Four
sisters work there. The archtecturally conspicuous building cost DM2.5 million.
The fortunes of the order have not spent a penny
toward the amount. The money was collected by a Christian association in
Hamburg. With Mother T as figure head it was
naturally short work to collect the millions.

Mother Teresa saw it as as her God given right never to have to pay anyone for
anything. Once she bought food for her nuns in London for
GB�500. When she was told she'd have to pay at the till, the diminutive
seemingly harmless nun showed her Balkan temper and
shouted, "This is for the work of God!" She raged so loud and so long that
eventually a businessman waiting in the queue paid up on
her behalf.

England is one of the few countries where the sisters allow the authorities at
least a quick glance at their accounts. Here the
order took in DM5.3 million in 1991. And expenses (including charitable
expenses)? -- around DM360,000 or less than 7%. Whatever
happened to the rest of the money? Sister Teresina, the head for England,
defensively states, "Sorry we can't tell you that." Every
year, according to the returns filed with the British authorities, a portion of
the fortune is sent to accounts of the order in other
countries. How much to which countries is not declared. One of the recipients
is however, always Rome. The fortune of this famous
charitable organistaion is controlled from Rome, -- from an account at the
Vatican bank. And what happens with monies at the Vatican
Bank is so secret that even God is not allowed to know about it. One thing is
sure however -- Mother's outlets in poor countries do not
benefit from largesse of the rich countries. The official biographer of Mother
Teresa, Kathryn Spink, writes, "As soon as the sisters
became established in a certain country, Mother normally withdrew all financial
support." Branches in very needy countries therefore
only receive start-up assistance. Most of the money remains in the Vatican
Bank.

STERN asked the Missionaries of Charity numerous times for information about
location of the donations, both in writing as well
in person during a visit to Mother Teresa's house in Calcutta. The order has
never answered.

"You should visit the House in New York, then you'll understand what happens to
donations," sayssays Eva Kolodziej. The Polish lady was a
Missionary of Charity for 5 years. "In the cellar of the homeless shelter there
are valuable books, jewellery and gold. What happens
to them? -- The sisters receive them with smiles, and keep them. Most of these
lie around uselessly forever."

The millions that are donated to the order have a similar fate. Susan Shields
(formerly Sr Virgin) says, "The money was not misused,
but the largest part of it wasn't used at all. When there was a famine in
Ethiopia, many cheques arrived marked 'for the hungry in
Ethiopia'. Once I asked the sister who was in charge of accounts if I should
add up all those very many cheques and send the total to
Ethiopia. The sister answered, 'No, we don't send money to Africa.

But I continued to make receipts to the donors, 'For Ethiopia'." By the
accounts of former sisters, the finances are a one way
street. "We were always told, the fact that we receive more than other orders,
shows that God loves Mother Teresa more. ," says Susan
Shields. Donations and hefty bank balances are a measure of God's love. Taking
is holier than giving.

The sufferers are the ones for whom the donations were originally intended. The
nuns run a soup kitchen in New York's Bronx. Or, to
put in straight, they have it run for them, since volunteer helpers organise
everything, including food. The sisters might distribute
it. Once, Shields remembers, the helpers made an organisational mistake, so
they could not deliver bread with their meals. The
sisters asked their superior if they could buy the bread. "Out of the question
-- we are a poor organisation." came the reply. "In the
end, the poor did not get their bread," says Shields. Shields has experienced
countless such incidents. One girl from communion class
did not appear for her first communion because her mothet could not buy her a
white communion dress. So she had to wait another year;
but as that particular Sunday approached, she had the same problem again.
Shields (Sr Virgin) asked the superior if the order could buy
the girl a white dress. Again, she was turned down -- gruffly. The girl never
had her first communion.

Because of the tightfistedness of the rich order, the "poorest of the poor" --
orphans in India -- suffer the most. The nuns run a
home in Delhi, in which the orphans wait to be adopted by, in many cases, by
foreigners. As usual, the costs of running the home are
borne not by the order, but by the future adoptive parents. In Germany the
organisation called Pro Infante has the monopoly of
mediation role for these children. The head, Carla Wiedeking, a personal friend
of Mother Teresa's, wrote a letter to Donors,
Supporters and Friends which ran:

"On my September vist I had to witness 2 or 3 children lying in the same cot,
in totally overcrowded rooms with not a square inch of
playing space. The behavioural problems arising as a result cannot be
overlooked." Mrs Wiedeking appeals to the generosity of
supporters in view of her powerlessness in the face of the children's great
needs. Powerlessness?! In an organisation with a
billion-fortune, which has 3 times as much money available to it as UNICEF is
able to spend in all of India? The Missionaries of Charity
has have the means to buy cots and build orphanages, -- with playgrounds. And
they have enoungh money not only for a handful
orphans in Delhi but for many thousand orphans who struggle for survival in the
streets of Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta.

Saving, in Mother Teresa's philosophy, was a central value in itself. All very
well, but as her poor organisation quickly grew
into a rich one, what did she do with her pictures, jewels, inherited houses,
cheques or suitcases full of money? If she wished
to she could now cater to people not by obsessively indulging in saving, but
instead through well thought-out spending. But the Nobel
Prize winner did not want an efficient organisation that helped people
efficiently. Full of pride, she called the Missionaries of
Charity the "most disorganised organisation in the world".

Computers, typewriters, photocopiers are not allowed. Even when they are
donated, they are not allowed to be installed. For book-keeping
the sisters use school notebooks, in which they write in cramped pencilled
figures. Until they are full. Then everything is erased
and the notebook used again. All in order to save.

For a sustainable charitable system, it would have been sensible to train the
nuns to become nurses, teachers or managers. But a
Missionary of Charity nun is never trained for anything further. Fueled by her
desire for un-professionalism, Mother Teresa
decisions from year to year became even more bizarre. Once, says Susan Shields,
the order bought am empty building from the City of
New York in order to look after AIDS patients. Purchase price: 1 dollar. But
since handicapped people would also be using the house,
NY City management insisted on the installation of a lift (elevator). The offer
of the lift was declined: to Mother they were
a sign of wealth. Finally the nuns gave the building back to the City of New
York.

While the Missionaries of Charity have already witheld help from the starving
in Ethiopia or the orphans in India -- despite having
received donations in their names -- there are others who are being actively
harmed by the organisation's ideology of disorganisation.
In 1994, Robin Fox, editor of the prestigious medical journal Lancet, in a
commentary on the catastrophic conditions prevailing in
Mother Teresa's homes, shocked the professional world by saying that any
systematic operation was foreign to the running of the homes in
India: TB patients were not isolated, and syringes were washed in lukewarm
water before being used again. Even patients in unbearable
pain were refused strong painkillers, not because the order did not have them,
but on principle. "The most beautiful gift for a person
is that he can participate in the suffering of Christ," said Mother Teresa.
Once she had tried to comfort a screaming sufferer, "You are
suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you." The sufferer screamed back,
furious, "Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing me."

The English doctor Jack Preger once worked in the home for the dying. He says,
"If one wants to give love, understanding and care,
one uses sterile needles. This is probably the richest order in the world. Many
of the dying there do not have to be dying in a strictly
medical sense." The British newspaper Guardian described the hospice as an
"organised form of neglectful assistance".

It seems that the medical care of the orphans is hardly any better. In 1991 the
head of Pro Infante in Germany sent a newsletter to
adoptive parents:"Please check the validity of the vaccinations of your
children. We assume that in some case they have been vaccinated
with expired vaccines, or with vaccines that had been rendered useless by
improper strotage conditions." All this points to one
thing, something that Mother Teresa reiterated very frequently in her speeches
and addresses -- that she far more concerened with life
after death than the mortal life.

Mother Teresa's business was : Money for a good conscience. The donors
benefitted the most from this. The poor hardly. Whosoever
believed that Mother Teresa wanted to cahnge the world, eliminate suffering or
fight poverty, simply wanted to believe it for their
own sakes. Such people did not listen to her. To be poor, to suffer was a goal,
almost an ambition or an achievement for her and she
imposed this goal upon those under her wings; her actual ordained goal was the
hereafter.

With growing fame, the founder of the order became somewhat conscious of the
misconceptioons on which the Mother Teresa
phenomenon was based. She wrote a few words and hung them outside Mother House:

"Tell them we are not here for work, we are here for Jesus. We are religious
above all else. We are not social workers, not teachers,
not doctors. We are nuns."

One question then remains: For what, in that case, do nuns need so much money?