If there is anybody that everybody loves, it Mother Teresa right? No, of course not. Christopher Hitchens, who some of you may recall was removed from his trailer by police in a domestic call earlier this year, think’s she’s a total fraud. So who asked him? Well, the vatican apparently. He charges, among other things, that Mother Teresa and her sisters of charity hobnobbed with dictators and whored their blessings out to mobsters for cash. More importantly, he claims she never really did much for the poor she helped, and if fact was a big champion of restricting birth control and family planning.

Ok ok. But what I think is interesting is that the pope and most of the rest of us were really stoked that Mother Teresa was going to be made a saint. Why did we want such a thing? What are saints anyway? They’re magical people right? People who have performed miracles. Well, apparently they’ve drudged up an alledged miracle or two to attribute to Teresa (one posthumously) but no one really seems to beleive in them. Maybe the Pope does I guess, I suppose that’s what he’s paid for. But maybe not even really him.

That’s beside the point though isn’t it? We (you me the pope) want Mother Teresa to be a Saint because we thought she was really amazingly self-sacrificing and worked increadibly hard on behalf of the poor. Interesting that we all seem content with the notion that that makes you an offiicial pope-accredited saint. It’s a pretty secular view of saint-hood. Interesting that the Vatican seems to be accepting of this secular view of a previously very mystical institution.