09-05-2007, 03:02 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Woman 'cured' by Mother Teresa lives in poverty </b>
by Diptendu Dutta
DANOGRAM, India (AFP) - An Indian woman whose claimed miracle cure from cancer led to Mother Teresa being thrust toward sainthood has accused Catholic nuns of abandoning her to a life of misery.
The angry comments came as the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by the Albanian-born nun in the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata in 1950, prepared to mark Wednesday's 10th anniversary of the heroine's death.
"I will not go to any church," 40-year-old Manica Besra told AFP, squatting on the floor of her thatched and mud house in Danogram village, 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the eastern city of Kolkata, where Mother Teresa worked.
"I will remember Mother Teresa on her death anniversary at home with my children and husband," she added.
It was Besra's alleged miracle cure from a "lumpy" tumour on September 6, 1998 -- a year after the nun's death -- that led to the Vatican clearing the way for Mother Teresa's beatification in October 2003.
Usually, the journey from death to beatification to sainthood takes decades if not centuries in the Catholic Church, which has 1.1 billion followers worldwide.
"My hut was frequented by nuns of the Missionaries of Charity before the beatification of Mother Teresa," Besra said.
"They made of lot of promises to me and assured me of financial help for my livelihood and my children's education," she claimed, adding that she was also escorted to the Vatican for the beatification ceremony.
"After that, they forgot me," said Besra, tears welling up in her eyes.
With the small piece of family land mortgaged to a village money lender years ago, Besra said she is struggling to survive.
"I am now living in penury. My husband is sick. My children have stopped going to school as I have no money. I have to work in the fields to feed my husband and five children," said Besra, clad in a torn yellow sari.
When she has no work, her children -- four sons and a daughter -- go to bed hungry.
But despite her impoverished situation, Besra's faith in Mother Teresa -- who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 -- is unshaken.
Even in her present need, "I find peace when I close my eyes and think of her. I often see her in my dreams," Besra said.
At Mother House in Kolkata -- the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity -- preparations were in full swing to commemorate the Catholic nun's death.
"A special mass on memory of Mother will be held beside her tomb in the chapel on the first floor of the Mother House in the morning," said Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor.
"Mother House will remain open throughout the day to enable the people pay homage to Mother," she said, adding that thousands of people were expected.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070905/lf_af...leteresapoverty
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I'm willing to bet that even that so-called tumor (if at all it was diagnosed correctly) was 'healed' by medical intervention and NOT by Theresa's powers. Not long ago, villagers with flu were 'healed' by christian missionaries by simple antibiotics being paraded as jesus's blessings. Considering that the majority of our poor are totally uneducated, and have no clue of diseases nor basic understanding of the human body, it is very easy to deceive them with 'miraculous' cures. The christian missionaries have long used the poor's ignorance and blind trust to their advantage.
by Diptendu Dutta
DANOGRAM, India (AFP) - An Indian woman whose claimed miracle cure from cancer led to Mother Teresa being thrust toward sainthood has accused Catholic nuns of abandoning her to a life of misery.
The angry comments came as the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by the Albanian-born nun in the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata in 1950, prepared to mark Wednesday's 10th anniversary of the heroine's death.
"I will not go to any church," 40-year-old Manica Besra told AFP, squatting on the floor of her thatched and mud house in Danogram village, 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the eastern city of Kolkata, where Mother Teresa worked.
"I will remember Mother Teresa on her death anniversary at home with my children and husband," she added.
It was Besra's alleged miracle cure from a "lumpy" tumour on September 6, 1998 -- a year after the nun's death -- that led to the Vatican clearing the way for Mother Teresa's beatification in October 2003.
Usually, the journey from death to beatification to sainthood takes decades if not centuries in the Catholic Church, which has 1.1 billion followers worldwide.
"My hut was frequented by nuns of the Missionaries of Charity before the beatification of Mother Teresa," Besra said.
"They made of lot of promises to me and assured me of financial help for my livelihood and my children's education," she claimed, adding that she was also escorted to the Vatican for the beatification ceremony.
"After that, they forgot me," said Besra, tears welling up in her eyes.
With the small piece of family land mortgaged to a village money lender years ago, Besra said she is struggling to survive.
"I am now living in penury. My husband is sick. My children have stopped going to school as I have no money. I have to work in the fields to feed my husband and five children," said Besra, clad in a torn yellow sari.
When she has no work, her children -- four sons and a daughter -- go to bed hungry.
But despite her impoverished situation, Besra's faith in Mother Teresa -- who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 -- is unshaken.
Even in her present need, "I find peace when I close my eyes and think of her. I often see her in my dreams," Besra said.
At Mother House in Kolkata -- the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity -- preparations were in full swing to commemorate the Catholic nun's death.
"A special mass on memory of Mother will be held beside her tomb in the chapel on the first floor of the Mother House in the morning," said Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor.
"Mother House will remain open throughout the day to enable the people pay homage to Mother," she said, adding that thousands of people were expected.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070905/lf_af...leteresapoverty
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm willing to bet that even that so-called tumor (if at all it was diagnosed correctly) was 'healed' by medical intervention and NOT by Theresa's powers. Not long ago, villagers with flu were 'healed' by christian missionaries by simple antibiotics being paraded as jesus's blessings. Considering that the majority of our poor are totally uneducated, and have no clue of diseases nor basic understanding of the human body, it is very easy to deceive them with 'miraculous' cures. The christian missionaries have long used the poor's ignorance and blind trust to their advantage.