world. Letters of praise and congratulations also poured in. Many people
stopped by Motherhouse to offer their congratulations and best wishes.
Many in India rejoiced that the prize had once again come to their coun-
try; six decades earlier, the Nobel committee had awarded the same prize
to Mahatma Gandhi. The government also issued a commemorative
postage stamp in Mother Teresa’s honor. Many people rejoiced around the
world, that, for once, the Nobel committee had put politics to the side
and picked a true humanitarian, one who easily matched the stature of
previous winners such as Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi, and Martin Luther
King, Jr. Other people believed that by winning the Nobel Peace Prize,
Mother Teresa had enhanced the prestige of the award.
Still, there were detractors. Some of the most vocal dissent came from
an extremist anti-Gandhian group that published an article “Nothing
Noble about the Nobel”:For when all is said and done, she is a missionary. In serving the
poor and the sick, her sole objective is to influence people in
favour of Christianity and, if possible to convert them. Mis-
sionaries are instruments of Western imperialist countries—
and not innocent voices of God.^5Another critic wrote to The New York Timesstating that his under-
standing of the Nobel Peace Prize was that it was to be given to an indi-
vidual who made important contributions to world peace, not to someone
who merely helped individuals in distress. Another article, in the National
Catholic Reporter,suggested that Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of
Charity merely covered the wounds left by capitalism and that they did
little in the way of actually helping to change the conditions that make
people poor. In general, the hubbub over Mother Teresa’s winning of the
prize overshadowed the winners of the other Nobel prizes that year.
ON TO OSLO
In December 1979, Mother Teresa, accompanied by four other nuns,
traveled to Oslo to receive the Nobel Prize medal and a check for
£90,000 (appx. $161,000). In addition, there was another check of
£36,000 (appx. $64,000) awaiting her, which was a donation raised by
the young people of Norway. Another £3,000 (appx. $5,300) was later
presented to her after she requested that the monies spent on the cus-
tomary banquet given in honor of the recipient instead be given to those
who needed a meal more.
BLESSINGS AND BLAME 115