Catholic icon Teresa was both adored and attacked

Vatican City, Sep 4 (AFP) For those who revered her,Mother Teresa’s elevation to the Catholic sainthood today camenot a moment too soon. The diminutive nun whose journey from a corner to theOttoman Empire to the slums of India made her one of the mostfamous women in the world was regarded by many as a saintduring her lifetime. "Saint of the Gutters" and "Angel of Mercy," were amongthe sobriquets she picked up over the course of nearly fourdecades working with the wretched poor of Kolkata and buildingher Missionaries of Charity order into a global force. But there was another school of thought. Australianfeminist Germaine Greer called her a "religious imperialist"who preyed on the most vulnerable in the name of harvestingsouls for Jesus. And her most ferocious critic, the British polemicistChristopher Hitchens called her "a fanatic, a fundamentalistand a fraud." But Teresa was always far more revered than reviled. Millions acclaimed her as an icon of Christian charity anda global symbol of anti-materialism and worthwhileself-sacrifice. Her adopted homeland, India, took her to its heart. "It isnatural for every Indian to take pride in Mother Teresa’scanonisation," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said earlier thisweek. On her death in 1997, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth IIpredicted Teresa would "continue to live on in the hearts ofall those who have been touched by her selfless love." The private Teresa was a more complex personality than sheappeared to the world. Behind her gaunt, wrinkled face lay atroubled soul. For long periods, she was plagued by doubts about thefaith that drove her mission to provide comfort to the dying. "There is so much contradiction in my soul," she wrote tothe Bishop of Calcutta in a posthumously published 1957letter. "Heaven means nothing to me, it looks like an emptyplace." Two years later, she wrote to a priest friend saying: "IfI ever become a saint, I will surely be one of darkness; Iwill continually be absent from heaven – to light the light ofthose in darkness on earth." The saintly tag became official today, thanks to afast-track canonisation process that reaches its conclusion onthe eve of the 19th anniversary of her death in what is nowcalled Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. MORE (AFP)ABH