Canonising Mother Teresa: The Selling of the Catholic Church

‘The story of Mother Teresa of Kolkata is a story of how a modern saint is cultivated and made. The Catholic Church, for all its ceremonial weight and stuffy ritual, has always been, in one sense, modern. Modern to corporate practice; modern to innovative methods of generating wealth; and novel for creating cohorts of public relations promoters known as saints.
The latest addition comes in the form of Mother Teresa, who was canonised on September 4. On being beatified, thereby being given the title of Blessed, the pathway to sainthood was assured. In doing so, the Church succumbed, according to the late Christopher Hitchens, “to the forces of showbiz, superstition, and populism.”[1]
Ever wishing to give a sense of incorporating even dissenters, the Church went so far as to ask Hitchens to play Devil’s Advocate. Naturally, the role of advocatus diaboli was itself pure show, necessary procedural pomp for an assured outcome. The MT train was chuffing inexorably to final canonisation.’
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