Madre Teresa: ¿Santa o política?

Es necesario que el polvo caiga para poder entender la historia, sino corremos el riesgo de ser tontos útiles. Eso parece que ha intentado hacer la iglesia católica al beatificar a la religiosa india solo seis años después de su muerte. La misma estrategia se ha usado para Escrivá de Balaguer (el fundador del Opus Dei) y el Papa Juan Pablo II... Sin embargo, ahora a la distancia, la realidad histórica empieza a surgir.



Gezim Alpion acaba de publicar un libro sugerente titulado Madre Teresa: ¿Santa o celebridad?, y la revista británica en línea Spiked hace una brillante reseña. El libro disecta el fenómeno de fama y celebridad de la religiosa y revela datos desconocidos de su vida personal. Copio de Spiked:

For Alpion, celebrity culture is a modern form of religion and Mother Teresa was the ultimate religious celebrity of the modern era. Unlike the many saints recognised by the Catholic Church, Mother Teresa’s apparent sanctity took root and flourished during her lifetime. Her beatification in 2003, just six years after her death, propelled her further towards actual sainthood. Alpion points out that the beatification of such a contemporary figure was as much a consequence of her growing stardom as it was of her devoted religious practice...

... Mother Teresa was noticed by the American Catholic media apparatus towards the end of the 1950s, and her usefulness to political campaigns was also gradually exported around the world. By the 1980s she was a staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan’s attempts to curb abortion, and she also urged the relatives of those who lost their lives in the Bhopal disaster of 1984 to forgive Union Carbide, which was widely held to be responsible for the disaster...

Parece ser, que como dice el dicho, nada es lo que parece...