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According to this article, Mother Teresa did much more harm than good and was opposed to helping the poor, the ills and raped women.

Is it true that Mother Teresa didn't do much to help those in need ? If so, why is she seen as a saint by many ?

Flimzy
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user14168
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    article by Christopher Hichens – GEdgar Dec 19 '15 at 15:54
  • @GEdgar References 106-107-108 of the [wikipedia article about Mother Teresa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa#cite_note-106) say pretty much the same thing. – user14168 Dec 19 '15 at 15:59
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    Down-voting this question for it being too board. Apparently, Mother Theresa did help those in need and won a nobel price but she also opposed contraception and cause harm to some people. So, it's not a black or white issue. So, unless you have a specific claim about Mother Theresa, I don't think this will be received will on this site. – George Chalhoub Dec 19 '15 at 17:35
  • [Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) If you want to take a specific claim of something Mother Teresa did, we can address that. Whether she was a "fanatic" is opinion. Whether she was a fraud isn't claimed (I think) and calls for speculation about her motivation, and is off-topic. Whether she helped those in need depends on whether you believe in an after-life, and is a matter of opinion. – Oddthinking Dec 19 '15 at 23:05
  • @Oddthinking: Well, fraud could be claimed. [Check this:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa#Criticism) "**It was estimated that she raised over $100 million for her charity, yet only 5-7% of this was used in catering to the poor.**" Furthermore, many empirical sources mention that Mother Theresa thought that poverty and suffering are a gift from God, and she refused many times to help the poor. But, when she got sick, she went to the hospital (and was criticized of double standards). – George Chalhoub Dec 20 '15 at 13:59
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    @George: Is that estimate true? Fine question. Was it *fraud*? Not so good (and not claimed here). Did she *say* poverty was a gift from God? Okay question. Did she *believe* poverty was a gift from God? Off-topic. Was she a hypocrite? Off-topic. – Oddthinking Dec 21 '15 at 01:51
  • I seem to remember a Penn and Teller piece (in a show whose name might not be acceptable to use here) that covered people considered to be great humanitarians (if I remember right, the people covered were Ghandi, Theresa and the Dali Llama), and they levelled similar accusations at Theresa. Then again, they have been known to use that show as a soap box on more than one occasion (the episodes on smoking and gun control were particularly notorious for that) so I don't know how reliable a source that is. – GordonM Dec 21 '15 at 17:34

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