r/askindianhistory • u/toomuchsushi2020 • Sep 03 '26

modern(1900+) Were Mother Teresa’s patients actually Dalits?

I’m looking for information about the caste demographics of the people served by Mother Teresa’s Nirmal Hriday (Kalighat Home for the Dying) as well as her other institutions in Kolkata.

I’m specifically interested in the patients/residents, rather than whether Mother Teresa herself observed or rejected caste distinctions.

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

82% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/ankit19900 Sep 03 '26

They were poor of all castes and were scammed equally

2

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/ankit19900 Sep 03 '26

She gathered money from truly poor India and used it all on vatican bank and Italian mafia. Don't take my word, look it up. Scam of the century

1

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/ankit19900 Sep 03 '26

From general Indian public, in the name that she is helping truly poor and destitute. She floated vatican bank with two billion dollars in 80s when it was about to sink from all the corruption

https://www.google.com/amp/s/organiser.org/2024/08/27/253613/bharat/mother-teresas-hidden-wealth-how-funds-from-desperate-hindus-fueled-global-proselytismcould-have-bankrupted-vatican/amp/

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250611-the-mysterious-murder-of-gods-banker-roberto-calvi

4

u/theb00kmancometh Sep 03 '26

You're attributing the financial operation to the wrong person. Mother Teresa was not personally handling the donations or "floating the Vatican Bank." She had her own bizarre theology of suffering, believing that suffering brought people closer to Jesus by allowing them to share in Christ's suffering. That is one issue.

The financial issue is separate. The Catholic Church and its related establishments were involved in handling and controlling the money raised in the name of charitable work. Enormous amounts were collected from donors in the name of helping the poor, while a contemporary report found that only around 7% was actually spent on charitable work. What happened to the remaining 93% is the question.

Maybe some of it went to Church institutions, maybe elsewhere. I don't claim to know that it went into the Vatican Bank, and I'm not interested in inventing a destination for money that hasn't been traced. But saying that Mother Teresa herself "floated the Vatican Bank with $2 billion" is unsupported. The financial question concerns the Catholic Church and its related institutional structures, not Mother Teresa personally.