Overview of
Roman Catholicism
"Mother" Teresa
"Mother" Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in what is now Yugoslavia/Bosnia on 8/27/10. The
diminutive nun arrived 1/6/29 in India, where she started assisting the needy
and eventually established the now-global "Missionaries of Charity"
organization. "Mother" Teresa, and those who work with her, never try to convert
to Christ the dying people for whom they care. Instead, "Mother" Teresa
declares: "If in coming face to face with God we accept Him in our lives, then
we are converting. We become a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Catholic,
a better whatever we are. ... What God is in your mind you must accept" (from
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work , by Desmond Doig, p. 156, as quoted by
Dave Hunt, Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist , p. 149).
Acknowledging that "Mother" Teresa is a
good woman from the human perspective, does not answer the question: Is "Mother"
Teresa a regenerate Christian in the Biblical sense--a woman and an organization
with which Christians should associate and work? The secular world has honored
her with the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and accolades on every hand. In 6/85, she
received from President Reagan the highest United States civilian honor, the
Medal of Freedom award. In 10/85, she received the "warmest ovation of the
United Nation's 40th anniversary celebration." It is not all that surprising to
see the world, Catholicism, and liberal Protestantism offer unqualified applause
to "Mother" Teresa. More significant and difficult to understand is the applause
being given to her by those claiming to be Bible-believing Christians. This,
though, is evidenced on every hand ("Is Mother Teresa a True Christian?" by
David W. Cloud, pp. 5-6).
"Mother" Teresa is a thorough-going
Catholic. She is a great worshiper of Mary; she believes the cracker of the mass
is Jesus Christ; she believes all men are children of God. In her speech before
the United Nations in October 1985, she said, "We gather to thank God for the 40
years of the beautiful work of the United Nations for the good of the people. No
color, no religion, no nationality should come between us--we are all children
of God. ... When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God" (11/11/85 Christian
News ).
Other notable quotes from "Mother" Teresa
(12/4/89 Time , pp. 11 & 13):
(a) "The dying, the crippled, the mentally
ill , the unwanted, the unloved--they are Jesus in disguise . ... [through the]
poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus." [On another
occasion, she again demonstrated her pantheistic religious philosophy: "Every
AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in everyone.. ... [AIDS
sufferers are] children of God [who] have been created for greater things"
(1/13/86 Time ).]
(b) "You must make them feel loved and
wanted. They are Jesus for me."
(c) "I love all religions. ... If people
become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then
there is something else growing there." [On another occasion, she again
demonstrated her false gospel that 'there are many ways to God': "All is God--Buddists,
Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God."]
It should be clear that "Mother" Teresa is
anything but an Evangelical Christian. She is a self-sacrificing woman who is
following a false religion. Consider some quotes from her speech at the 10/84
Worldwide Retreat for Priests:
(a) "At the word of a priest, that little
piece of bread becomes the body of Christ, the Bread of Life."
(b) "Without a priest, without Jesus going
with them, our sisters couldn't go anywhere."
(c) "When the priest is there, then can we
have our altar and our tabernacle and our Jesus. Only the priest put Jesus there
for us. ... Jesus wants to go there, but we cannot bring him unless you first
give him to us. This is why I love priests so much. We could never be what we
are and do the things we do without you priests who first bring Jesus to us."
(d) "Mary ... is our patroness and our
Mother, and she is always leading us to Jesus."
No one would deny that "Mother" Teresa is
doing a marvelous piece of wonderful humanitarian work among the poor and
neglected of the world, but what gospel does she preach to them? She is
definitely not leading them to the one, true, eternal salvation through the
finished sacrifice of Calvary. "Mother" Teresa provides the classic example of
compassionate and charitable deeds divorced from truth. She says that her
purpose is to bring her patients closer to the "God" in whom they already
believe; so that a Hindu becomes a better Hindu, a Buddhist a better Buddhist,
etc. (Vatican II says those of all religions are somehow saved through the
Church.) She tells how to witness for Jesus: In an interview with a nun who
works with "Mother" Teresa (reported in Christian News ), dying Hindus were
instructed to pray to their own Hindu gods!:
"These people are waiting to die. What are
you telling them to prepare them for death and eternity? She replied candidly,
'We tell them to pray to their Bhagwan, to their gods.'"
She was instructing these staunch Hindus
to pray sincerely to their own Hindu idols and she felt that if they did this,
God would certainly not judge them! No matter how plausible from man's earthly
vantage point, when good works are conducted by unregenerate religious people,
what is promoted is a cursed false gospel, encouraging the lost heathen to have
hope in their false gods, even as they lay upon their death beds. In God's eyes,
therefore, the entire endeavor is a cursed one, and no Christian should support,
assist, or praise a work cursed by God!
The following is from an interview with a
Catholic nun, "Sister" Ann, who worked in Kathmandu, Nepal, with "Mother"
Teresa's organization Missionaries of Charity. The interview was conducted
11/23/84 at the Pashupati Temple.
Q: Do you believe if they die believing in
Shiva or in Ram [Hindu gods] they will go to heaven?
A: Yes, that is their faith. My own faith
will lead me to God, ... So if they have believed in their god very strongly, if
they have faith, surely they will be saved.
Q: Today it does not seem that the
Catholic Church is trying to convert anymore. I know that John Paul II is saying
now that those of other religions are saved. You do not believe they are lost
anyway, right?
A: No, they are not lost. They are saved
according to their faith, you know. If they believe whatever they believe, that
is their salvation.
Obviously, then, "Mother" Teresa is both a
pantheist and a Universalist--Universalists maintain that Muslims, Hindus, Jews,
and other non-Christians can get to heaven without saving faith in Christ; they
are those who believe that all who sincerely follow their own religions or
beliefs will be saved. "Mother" Teresa tells Muslims and Jews that they worship
the same God that Christians worship. "Mother" Teresa has even called atheistic
communists children of God!
"Mother" Teresa is very much in the
mainstream of the ecumenical world evangelization project "Evangelization 2000."
She was on hand in June, 1987, by invitation, to help dedicate the offices of
Evangelization 2000 in Rome. She is an honorary member of Lumen 2000, the
electronic media aspect of Evangelization 2000. The first issue of New
Evangelization 2000 features "Mother" Teresa prominently with photographs of
her, and one entire article entitled, "Mother Teresa Promises Support."
(Reported in the 2/15/93 Bold Truth Press .) ["Mother" Teresa was also scheduled
to join the Dalai Lama and hundreds of other world religious leaders at the
Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. She was
scheduled to lead a closed session of key participants on future co-operative
efforts among the world's religions, but was forced to cancel for health
reasons.]
"Mother" Teresa is also involved in
various projects with New Agers and "one-worlders." In 1985, "Mother" Teresa
attended a conference sponsored by the United Nations University of Peace whose
featured agenda was a call to bring about the New World Order. Others
participating in the "Spirit of Peace" conference included Marilyn Ferguson,
leading proponent of the New Age movement; Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands,
commonly known as a leader of the one-world secret elitist society, the
Bilderbergers; "His Holiness" Tenzin Gyatso, the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet; Helen
Caldicott, president of "Physicians for Social Responsibility," an organization
favoring U.S. unilateral disarmament; Bishop Desmond Tutu, proponent of leftist
revolution in South Africa; and New Ager Robert Muller, Ass't. Secretary General
of the U.N., in charge of co-ordinating the work of 32 specialized agencies and
world programs. [Reported in "Ecumenism, 'Global Spirituality' and Mother
Teresa," Christian Inquirer (April 1985), p. 26; and The Prophecy Newsletter
(Vol. 1, No. 5, p. 6.)]
"Mother" Teresa also participated in the
"Summit for Peace" in Assisi, Italy, in November 1986. This blasphemous prayer
meeting was arranged by the Pope and was attended by leaders of many different
religions, including Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Shinto, Sikh, and North American
Indian--all of whom united in prayers for world peace (11/10/86 Time , pp.
78-79).
Biblical Discernment Ministries - Revised
3/96
[Mother Theresa died in 1997 and based on
the gospel she taught and lived by, she is now awaiting the White Throne
Judgment and will be judged for her sins. While many ignorant Protestant clergy
still laud her as a true Christian, she was anything but. No one will ever deny
she did true humanitarian work but she came in the name of a false gospel, she
preached a false gospel, and died in that false gospel. The way of salvation is
through Christ and Christ alone. No one can work their way to Heaven, for if we
could, then Christ died in vain because salvation would have been available by
human effort. Self-works are an affront to the Cross of Christ. Mother Teresa is
another casualty of the false church of Rome. If you are reading this and want
to follow in her footsteps, you have become seduced by a false system and in
need of salvation. - Dr. Ken Matto]
Does God really exist? The agony
of Teresa
By Bruce Johnston and Brigid Delaney
November 30 2002
Mother Teresa, put on the fast-track to sainthood by the
Pope after her death five years ago, was tormented by a crisis of belief for 50
years, her writings reveal.
Her letters and diaries present a completely different
picture of the nun and Nobel peace laureate from her public image as a woman
confident of her faith.
It is being said in Rome that biographies will have to be
rewritten to take the revelation into account.
The previously unpublished material is to be brought out
as a volume in Italy. It was collected by Roman Catholic authorities in Calcutta
after her death, aged 87.
Mother Teresa, who worked among the poor of Calcutta,
wrote in 1958: "My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains."
Because she was "forever smiling", people thought "my faith, my hope and my love
are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with his will fill my
heart. If only they knew"
Mother Teresa said in another letter: "The damned of hell
suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God. In my
own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want
me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist."
Rome's daily newspaper Il Messeggero said: "The real
Mother Teresa was one who for one year had visions and who for the next 50 had
doubts - until her death."
Her years of doubt coincided with the period when, after
the visions, she decided to leave her teaching post at a privileged Calcutta
school to help India's poor.
After her death, the Pope waived the Vatican rule that
prohibits investigation of the cause for beatification until five years after
the subject's death.
Australian church leaders say Mother Teresa's period of
doubt only strengthens the case for her beatification.
Francesco Canalini, the Pope's representative in
Australia, said: "Many saints throughout history had times of trouble. The
message from God is that many holy people have had to face difficulties, but
they have fought them despite the darkness."
Sydney Columban priest Cyril Hally describes Mother
Teresa's doubts as the "dark night of the soul". "It is a purification process.
Doubt is part of the growth of holiness," he said, adding that it is also a part
of sainthood.
Il Segreto di Madre Teresa (Mother Teresa's Secret) will
be published in December.
The Telegraph, London
This story was found at:
https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/29/1038386314539.html
Archbishop: Mother Teresa
underwent exorcism
September 5, 2001 Posted: 10:05 AM EDT (1405 GMT)
By Satinder Bindra
CNN New Delhi Bureau
CALCUTTA, India (CNN) -- Senior church officials in
Calcutta acknowledge Mother Teresa had an exorcism performed on her in the
latter years of life.
The exorcism took place in a hospital where she had gone
for cardiac problems, said Archbishop of Calcutta Henry D'Souza. The archbishop
himself had been hospitalized at the same facility and shared the same doctor as
Mother Teresa.
He said he noticed that while Mother Teresa was calm
during the day, at night she appeared "extremely agitated." D'Souza said Mother
Teresa would pull off wires and other monitoring equipment stuck to her body.
He said that is when he believed Mother Teresa "might be
under the attack of the evil one." He offered to arrange for an exorcism for the
elderly nun. She agreed.
"So I said let's do the prayer of exorcism over her. So I
called one of the priests who was a holy man in Calcutta," D'Souza said. "I told
him, 'Please say the prayer of exorcism over Mother Teresa.' And he got a shock
and said, 'Shall I pray and should I drive out the devil if it's there?'"
"I said, 'Yes, you do.' But he says, 'What will the devil
do to me?' I said to him, 'You command the devil to go if he's there. In the
name of the church, as archbishop, I command you to go and do it.'"
After the exorcism was over, the archbishop said Mother
Teresa "slept like a baby."
He emphasized that other great religious leaders faced
similar challenges.
D'Souza said the revelations about Mother Teresa show that
she was "both holy and human," making her even more special.
The archbishop also corroborated earlier reports on CNN
that Mother Teresa felt abandoned by God at times during her life.
Those revelations were first made to CNN by Mother
Teresa's closest confidante, Sister Nirmala, who now heads the order,
Missionaries of Charity, established by Mother Theresa in 1950.
"This is part of the spiritual life of people, and God
sometimes wants to unite the soul very closely to himself. He will allow them to
feel abandoned by Him. And Jesus also on the cross felt he was abandoned,"
Sister Nirmala said.
She said Mother Teresa is most remembered for her
humanness -- "How human she was, how loving she was. How she wanted to be just
one of us."
D'Souza told CNN that Mother Teresa felt abandoned
particularly in her early years -- feelings she revealed in letters.
He said in one letter she wrote that she had been walking
the streets of Calcutta all day searching for a house where she could start her
work.
"At the end of the day, she came back and she wrote in her
diary, 'Today, I wandered the streets the whole day. My feet are aching and I
have not been able to find a home. And I also get the temptation, of the tempter
telling me, "Leave all this, go back to the convent in which you came."'"
She found her home and the rest is history. The
Missionaries of Charity feeds 500,000 families a year in Calcutta alone, treats
90,000 leprosy patients annually and educates 20,000 children every year.
Millions of Indians marked the fourth anniversary of her
death (she died September 5, 1997). The archbishop led a Mass Wednesday morning
at the Motherhouse, where Mother Teresa lived. Statues in the house were
decorated with garlands and her grave was bedecked in flowers.
The Vatican has begun the process of trying to declare her
a saint who dedicated her life to the service of the poor.
"Today, Mother is with God. Now in his presence, she has
more power with God. She is no more on earthly level," Sister Nirmala said. "She
has passed to eternal life. There she is very, very powerful." [is that so?]
Overview of
Roman Catholicism
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