As the most famous polemicist in his time and a life-long contrarian, Hitchens succeeded in living up to his reputation in this book, completing a formidable demolition job of the most celebrated 'Saint'.Although Vatican abolished the office of Devil's Advocate in 1983, they still occasionally seek opposing views, and in 2002, it was none other than Hitchens who rose to the challenge arguing against beatification of Mother Teresa.
I remember hearing him saying during an interview, "And I suddenly realised that I've become the first person in history who played a devil pro bono."
Mother Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech is legendary for its dogmatic, stupid and fundamentalist stance against abortion. This is another good example as to why this prize has become a laughing stock.
In this short book, he presents some indisputable evidences against her and Catholic Church, arguing that she was not a friend of the poor, but a friend of the poverty, and the rich.
It's really an eye-opening book by one of my favourite writers, sadly missed.
"The cure for poverty has a name, in fact: it's called the empowerment of women.
If you give women some control over the rate at which they reproduce, if you give them some say, take them off the animal cycle of reproduction to which nature and some doctrine—religious doctrine condemns them, and then if you'll throw in a handful of seeds perhaps and some credit, the floor of everything in that village, not just poverty, but education, health, and optimism will increase.
It doesn't matter; try it in Bangladesh, try it in Bolivia, it works—works all the time.
Mother Teresa spent her entire life fighting against this possible outcome."
Here is a superb TV program he made. It's a precursor to this book.
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