Why the Left Hates Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Breitbard ^ | 3 Sep 16 | THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D

[353FMG]

We pray for good weather, for a good harvest, protection against hurricanes and other natural disasters but the disaster of job loss is hardly ever mentioned. Laying off people in today’s economy can be a death sentence of an innocent. It is often a horrifying decision that is often made, haphazardly. Had to do it once 20 years ago and it still bothers me today. Had the opportunity to hire two unemployed later on which made me feel like a Mother Teresa. I pray that this latter act will influence the outcome of my Final Judgment. I have proposed that my church have a bulletin board ready where the jobless may contact prospective employers in my parish. Charity starts at home and not in some want ad in a newspaper.

[353FMG]

Anyone can post a prayer — recite it with spiritual intention or, better yet, post a genuine job position. (Have you browsed the internet and read the many want ads? Most are nothing but fishing for resumes without the intention to hire. It is typical of our present society where many folks prey on those living in misery.)

[Salvation]

I’ve been in the position of needing a job and answered ads; went to employment agencies and temp work agencies.

Finally I was able to get a part time job with the school district, and then I subbed regularly.

Yes, people prayed for me. I am speaking from experience.

In addition, people left bags of groceries on my front porch.

God bless them.

[353FMG]

The people that left the bags on the porch are saints in their own right.

[Mad Dawg]

1) We mention the jubless and the homeless often in our intercessions.

2) There are limits on what parishes can do. Even a large parish can’t address every need.

[353FMG]

Who determines the parish’s needs in order of acuity?

[Mad Dawg]

Nice question.

In principle, the pastor does. But there are a bunch of inputs.

— In a small city like mine, in which there is a lot of interaction and cooperation among parishes, synagogues, etc., we get together and see who is doing what. So, e.g. Parish A does ministry X, so other churches will help out with hours or donations, while Parish B has a good Haiti program, so other groups will help us. (Our diocese has a connection to Haiti and we have a parish and a school which depend on Charlottesville Catholic parishes for much of their budget.) And a lot of members of a lot of churches, etc. will help out at the Salvation Army.

— In addition, motivated members of many different, ahem,
“faith communities” gather each year to identify a community need and a solution and then make a proposal to the county and city boards.

— Our parish is humongous. There are things going on that I can't keep track of. It's so cool to see a bunch of folks around a table outside the “church proper” between it and the big meeting room. And it turns out to be this year's Catholic Student Ministry project on ... whatever, or a bunch of people who want to help this or that neighborhood or something.

— Also our parish is unique in a couple of ways. First it's a Dominican Parish,with an associated priory. So there's an emphasis on preaching and teaching, modo Dominicano. Then it is not a parish with a “territory.” Rather it is “the University Parish” of UVa. So it has a main mission which, one way or another, touches on almost everything that goes on, especially from September to May.

I mention this to show the differing sorts of inputs that go into what a parish ends up doing WRT “outreach.”

[Mad Dawg]

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/04/mother-teresa-and-her-critics

From 2013, I think.

[Izzy Dunne]

Oh, that's rich: It would have been hard for Pius IX to have been friends with Benito Mussolini, given that Pius died in 1878, and Mussolini was not born until 1883, but why should Hitchens be concerned about historical facts, when he was having such fun making them up?

If this really happened, then anyone who knows the history of the Catholic church knows what happened: Hitchens simply mixed up the numbers !

Pius IX did live way before Mussolini and was the pope who presided over the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and forcibly raised him Catholic.

It was Pius XII who was friends with Mussolini (even before he was pope).

So, a public speaker fumbles the number of a pope, and is accused of "making things up"...

[Mad Dawg]

Well, you know, like HRC, Hitchens is just so much smarter than us Catholics that we get disoriented when he falls short of Clintonian perfection.

And, it’s just a guess here, but I kind of bet that bobbling which Pope Pius he meant is not the only reason the only reason Hitchens is thought to have fabricated things here and there.