Mother Teresa: Where Are Her Millions?
The Angel of the poor died some years ago. Donations still flow in to her Missionaries of Charity like to no other cause. But the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize vowed to live in poverty. What then, happened to so much money?
If there is a heaven,
then she is surely there: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu from Skopje in
Macedonia, better known as Mother Teresa. She came to Calcutta on the
6th of Januray 1929 as an 18 year old sister of the Order of Loreto. 68
years later luminaries from all over the world assembled in Calcutta in
order to honour her with a state funeral. In these 68 years she had
founded the most successful order in the history of the Catholic church,
received the Nobel Peace Prize and became the most famous Catholic of
our time.
Are doubts permitted, regarding this “monument”?
In Calcutta, one meets many doubters.
For example, Samity, a
man of around 30 with no teeth, who lives in the slums. He is one of the
“poorest of the poor” to whom Mother Teresa was supposed to have
dedicated her life. With a plastic bag in hand, he stands in a kilometre
long queue in Calcutta’s Park Street. The poor wait patiently, until
the helpers shovel some rice and lentils into their bags. But Samity
does not get his grub from Mother Teresa’s institution, but instead from
the Assembly of God, an American charity, that serves 18000 meals here
daily.
“Mother Teresa?”says
Samity, “We have not received anything from her here. Ask in the slums —
who has received anything from the sisters here — you will find hardly
anybody.”
Pannalal Manik also has
doubts. “I don’t understand why you educated people in the West have
made this woman into such a goddess!” Manik was born some 56 years ago
in the Rambagan slum, which at about 300 years of age, is Calcutta’s
oldest. What Manik has achieved, can well be called a “miracle”. He has
built 16 apartment buildings in the midst of the slum — living space for
4000 people. Money for the building materials — equivalent to DM 10000
per apartment building — was begged for by Manik from the Ramakrishna
Mission [a Indian/Hindu charity], the largest assistance-organisation in
India. The slum-dwellers built the buildings themselves. It has become a
model for the whole of India. But what about Mother Teresa? “I went to
her place 3 times,” said Manik. “She did not even listen to what I had
to say. Everyone on earth knows that the sisters have a lot of money.
But no one knows what they do with it!”
In Calcutta there are
about 200 charitable organisations helping the poor. Mother Teresa’s
Missionaries of Charity are not amongst the biggest helpers: that
contradicts the image of the organisation. The name “Mother Teresa” was
and is tied to the city of Calcutta. All over the world admirers and
supporters of the Nobel Prize winner believe that it must be there that
her organisation is particularly active in the fight against poverty.
“All lies,” says Aroup Chatterjee ( truthweb@writeme.com ). The doctor who lives in London was born and brought up in Calcutta.
Chatterjee who has been working for years on a book on the myth of
Mother Teresa, speaks to the poor in the slums of Calcutta, or combs
through the speeches of the Nobel Prize winner. “No matter where I
search, I only find lies. For example the lies about schools. Mother T
has often stated that she runs a school in Calcutta for more than 5000
children. 5000 children! — that would have to be a huge school, one of
the biggest in all of India. But where is this school? I have never
found it, nor do I know anybody who has seen it!” says Chatterjee.
Compared to other
charitable organisations in Calcutta, the nuns with the 3 blue stripes
are ahead in two respects: they are world famous, and, they have the
most money. But how much exactly, has always been a closely guarded
secret of the organisation. Indian law requires charitable organisations
to publish their accounts. Mother Teresa’s organisation ignores this
prescription! It is not known if the Finance Ministry in Delhi who would
be responsible for charities’ accounts, have the actual figures. Upon
STERN’s inquiry, the Ministry informed us that this particular query was
listed as “classified information”.
The organisation has 6
branches in Germany. Here too financial matters are a strict secret.
“It’s nobody’s business how much money we have, I mean to say how little
we have,” says Sr Pauline, head of the German operations. Maria
Tingelhoff had had handled the organisation’s book-keeping on a
voluntary basis until 1981. “We did see 3 million a year,” she
remembers. But Mother Teresa never quite trusted the worldly helpers
completely. So the sisters took over the financial management themselves
in 1981. “Of course I don’t know how much money went in, in the years
after that, but it must be many multiples of 3 million,” estimates Mrs
Tingelhoff. “Mother was always very pleased with the Germans.”
Perhaps the most
lucrative branch of the organisation is the “Holy Ghost” House in New
York’s Bronx. Susan Shields served the order there for a total of nine
and a half years as Sister Virgin. “We spent a large part of each day
writing thank you letters and processing cheques,” she says. “Every
night around 25 sisters had to spend many hours preparing receipts for
donations. It was a conveyor belt process: some sisters typed, others
made lists of the amounts, stuffed letters into envelopes, or sorted the
cheques. Values were between $5 and $100.000. Donors often dropped
their envelopes filled with money at the door. Before Christmas the flow
of donations was often totally out of control. The postman brought
sackfuls of letters — cheques for $50000 were no rarity.” Sister Virgin
remebers that one year there was about $50 million in a New York bank
account. $50 million in one year! — in a predominantly non-Catholic
country. How much then, were they collecting in Europe or the world? It
is estimated that worldwide they collected at least $100 million per
year — and that has been going on for many many years.
While the income is utter
secret, the expenditures are equally mysterious. The order is hardly
able to spend large amounts. The establishments supported by the nuns
are so tiny (inconspicuous) that even the locals have difficulty tracing
them. Often “Mother Teresa’s Home” means just a living accomodation for
the sisters, with no charitable funstion. Conspicuous or useful
assistance cannot be provided there. The order often receives huge
donations in kind, in addition to the monetary munificence. Boxes of
medicines land at Indian airports. Donated foograins and powdered milk
arrive in containers at Calcutta port. Clothing donations from Europe
and the US arrive in unimaginable quantities. On Calcutta’s pavement
stalls, traders can be seen sellin used western labels for 25 rupees
(DM1) apiece. Numerous traders call out, “Shirts from Mother, trousers
from Mother.”
Unlike with other
charities, the Missionaries of Charity spend very little on their own
management, since the organisation is run at practically no cost. The
approximately 4000 sisters in 150 countries form the most treasured
workforce of all global multi-million dollar operations. Having taken
vows of poverty and obedience, they work for no pay, supported by
300,000 good citizen helpers.
By their own admission,
Mother Teresa’s organisation has about 500 locations worldwide. But for
purchase or rent of property, the sisters do not need to touch their
bank accounts. “Mother always said, we don’t spend for that,” remembers
Sunita Kumar, one the richest women in Calcutta and supposedly Mother
T’s closest associate outside the order. “If Mother needed a house, she
went straight to the owner, whether it was the State or a private
person, and worked on him for so long that she eventually got it free.”
Her method was also
successful in Germany.In March the “Bethlehem House” was dedicated in
Hamburg, a shelter for homeless women. Four sisters work there. The
archtecturally conspicuous building cost DM2.5 million. The fortunes of
the order have not spent a penny toward the amount. The money was
collected by a Christian association in Hamburg. With Mother T as figure
head it was naturally short work to collect the millions.
Mother Teresa saw it as
as her God given right never to have to pay anyone for anything. Once
she bought food for her nuns in London for GB£500. When she was told
she’d have to pay at the till, the diminutive seemingly harmless nun
showed her Balkan temper and shouted, “This is for the work of God!” She
raged so loud and so long that eventually a businessman waiting in the
queue paid up on her behalf.
England is one of the few
countries where the sisters allow the authorities at least a quick
glance at their accounts. Here the order took in DM5.3 million in 1991.
And expenses (including charitable expenses)? — around DM360,000 or less
than 7%. Whatever happened to the rest of the money? Sister Teresina,
the head for England, defensively states, “Sorry we can’t tell you
that.” Every year, according to the returns filed with the British
authorities, a portion of the fortune is sent to accounts of the order
in other countries. How much to which countries is not declared. One of
the recipients is however, always Rome. The fortune of this famous
charitable organistaion is controlled from Rome, — from an account at
the Vatican bank. And what happens with monies at the Vatican Bank is so
secret that even God is not allowed to know about it. One thing is sure
however — Mother’s outlets in poor countries do not benefit from
largesse of the rich countries. The official biographer of Mother
Teresa, Kathryn Spink, writes, “As soon as the sisters became
established in a certain country, Mother normally withdrew all financial
support.” Branches in very needy countries therefore only receive
start-up assistance. Most of the money remains in the Vatican Bank.
STERN asked the
Missionaries of Charity numerous times for information about location of
the donations, both in writing as well in person during a visit to
Mother Teresa’s house in Calcutta. The order has never answered.
“You should visit the
House in New York, then you’ll understand what happens to donations,”
sayssays Eva Kolodziej. The Polish lady was a Missionary of Charity for 5
years. “In the cellar of the homeless shelter there are valuable books,
jewellery and gold. What happens to them? — The sisters receive them
with smiles, and keep them. Most of these lie around uselessly forever.”
The millions that are
donated to the order have a similar fate. Susan Shields (formerly Sr
Virgin) says, “The money was not misused, but the largest part of it
wasn’t used at all. When there was a famine in Ethiopia, many cheques
arrived marked ‘for the hungry in Ethiopia’. Once I asked the sister who
was in charge of accounts if I should add up all those very many
cheques and send the total to Ethiopia. The sister answered, ‘No, we
don’t send money to Africa.’ But I continued to make receipts to the
donors, ‘For Ethiopia’.”
By the accounts of former
sisters, the finances are a one way street. “We were always told, the
fact that we receive more than other orders, shows that God loves Mother
Teresa more. ,” says Susan Shields. Donations and hefty bank balances
are a measure of God’s love. Taking is holier than giving.
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