chances are the order would certainly make much more of a difference in
working with the poor. Instead, Mother Teresa spread her nuns and their
money very thinly trying to open homes throughout the world. Further,
Hitchens argued, Mother Teresa chose her convent and the church’s
teachings over the work of her clinics.
According to the BBC, the Channel Four program did spectacularly:
approximately 1.6 million viewers tuned in to watch. In the aftermath of
the documentary’s airing, callers phoning the station called the program
insulting, hurtful, offensive, obscene, untrue, obnoxious, shocking, and
satanic. One viewer even went so far as to accuse the head of the station,
Michael Grade, a Jew, of anti-Catholic bias, while both Hitchens and
Tariq Ali were branded as Bolsheviks and Marxist revolutionaries. Other
viewers believe the film was nothing less than the work of a Judeo-Muslim
conspiracy.
The Roman Catholic Church understandably rallied to Mother
Teresa’s defense, denouncing the program as a grotesque caricature of the
woman and her work. Noted Catholic writer and historian Paul Johnson
called the documentary a diabolical and malicious attack by left-wing pro-
pagandists. Another 130 viewers went so far as to lodge a complaint with
the Independent Television Commission, which, after considering the
matter, refused to sanction the station for broadcasting the film.
In Calcutta, several of Mother Teresa’s supporters rallied to her cause,
calling the film biased. As of 2004, the film has yet to be shown in India,
due in part to how expensive the film is to sell, though copies are available
privately. Mother Teresa was undeterred by the controversy surrounding
her. When asked about the film in an interview, she simply stated, “No
matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own
work.”^4 However, the day after the program was shown, she did cancel a
scheduled visit to Taiwan, but did not explain her reasons for doing so to
anyone.
Despite the backlash against the film and Hitchens, there were those
who applauded what the film tried to do. One reviewer writing for the
Guardianstated that Hitchens was completely right in questioning what
he called the “cult of Teresa.” Another supporter of the program was the
Reverend Andrew de Berry, who had met Mother Teresa many years ear-
lier when he was a chaplain-in-training. He recalled her telling an audi-
ence that she advised the women of Calcutta to have as many children as
they wanted. De Berry then wrote that the experience stayed with him al-
ways; and undoubtedly many who died on the streets of Calcutta were the
children of mothers who took Mother Teresa’s counsel.
“THE MOST OBEDIENT WOMAN IN THE CHURCH” 127