He’s at it again. Left-wing malcontent Christopher Hitchens has launched another attack on Mother Teresa. In the October edition of Vanity Fair, Hitchens explains that the Vatican invited him to make his case against the beatification of Mother Teresa. Given his mad obsession with her, it was not surprising that he took another opportunity to bash her. William Donohue’s response to Hitchens will be published as a letter to the editor in Vanity Fair. Here is the letter:
“It was a shock to me,” says Christopher Hitchens, “when I first discovered that none of the things commonly believed about Mother Teresa–such as her unworldliness and modesty–are even the least bit true.” I don’t believe him for a moment. Given his hatred of the woman (she is the “ghoul of Calcutta”), it is implausible to believe that Hitchens would have been shocked by this “discovery.”
That Hitchens provides no evidence for his “discovery” shows a disturbing consistency in his writings. For example, in his book against Mother Teresa, The Missionary Position, Hitchens offers not one endnote for readers to check on the veracity of his accusations. This violates a rather simple principle demanded by scholars: the more serious the allegation, the more serious the evidence must be.
What drives Hitchens mad about Mother Teresa is missionary envy. His failed statist prescriptions for ending poverty don’t stack up too well when measured against Mother Teresa’s missionary work. It was never her goal to conquer poverty; her job was to alleviate the suffering of those who lived in poverty–a condition more often than not the direct result of statist designs.
Hitchens has admitted to me, and has admitted in writing, that he regrets that the American intellectual elite is not anti-Catholic. I commend him for this admission even as I strongly disagree with him. To prove my point, it is unfathomable that Vanity Fair would ever publish a piece by someone who lamented the fact that the American intellectual elite was not racist or anti-Semitic.
When Mother Teresa is beatified I promise to buy Chris a drink. He’ll need one.
