“Mrs. L. was Anne Frank even real?” I almost had an aneurism as a freshman girl asked me this question. She was holding a copy of I am Anne Frank from my collection of Brad Meltzer’s Ordinary People Change the World series. I tried my best to speak softly as to not bring more attention to this gregarious conversation and told her, “You are thinking of Helen Keller, and yes, she was real. In fact, just to clarify, BOTH Helen Keller and Anne Frank were real.” To my dismay that was not the end of our conversation. She began arguing with me that Helen Keller could not have possibly existed because how could someone be both blind and deaf? Then other students started joining in supporting her case! I could not believe how much effort I had to put into defending the mere existence of such a well-known historical figure. After a while they finally conceded to her existence but then wanted to down-play all of her achievements and shame Anne Sullivan for her methods and it all just became too much for a 56-minute class period.
Anyways, the point I am trying to make is this, all over the internet there are what I would call “click-bait” articles attempting to devalue or cancel key historical figures. Helen Keller is just the tip of the iceberg. Even Ghandi has haters and Mother Teresa. Yes, you heard me correctly. There are people online calling Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata the “C” word. I don’t even know where to begin but I’ll try.
There seems to be a vicious cycle of internal conflict in my heart. The more I study the Catholic church the more I want to share my findings which leads me to worry about the haters and nay-sayers putting me on the defense before I even have a chance to start. Exhausting, right? With Lent here and Mother Teresa being spotlighted on Halo I felt an urge to research the stance of her haters so that I could in turn debunk and defend. Through which I discovered a new Catholic writer I really enjoyed named Claire Swinarski, founder of The Catholic Feminist who posted a letter called, “There are People who Hate Mother Teresa: Like, how dare you?” She even has a podcast in which she interviews a sister who worked with Mother Teresa for years. For the record Claire LOVES Mama T.
When I think of Mother Teresa one of the first things to come to mind is her infamous, “Do It Anyway” poem. My primary care doctor has it posted on the wall in her exam room and every time I’m sitting on that table I smile as I read it. I don’t think Mother Teresa gave much worry to what other people said about her so it seems unnecessary that I run hypothetical scripts in my head about how I can put the misguided in their place.
In today’s world there is a lot of hate online. It’s easy to post, it’s easy to find and unfortunately it’s easy to get worked up about. So if you’re like me here is your friendly remind that the truth always reveals itself. After all, it was never between you and them anyway.