Mother
Teresa: Miracle or Myth?
Introduction
On
October 19th, 2003, Pope John Paul the Second declared the beatification
of Mother Teresa, a step closer in the process of pushing her towards
Sainthood. To achieve Sainthood, there would have to be two miracles
performed after the death of the candidate. So far, Roman Catholic
officials hold that Mother Teresa has performed one miracle, which
led to her Beatification.
What was this
miracle that Mother Teresa performed which the Pope and the Catholic
Church has approved as authentic? In light of her Beatification
this question would be important. Equally as important is the question
of whether this miracle was really authentic. The truth should be
what one seeks especially in this high stake case.
The
Claim
Mother Teresa
spent the majority of her life as a nun working among the poorest
of the poor in India. When she passed away on September 5th, 1997,
the world mourned for her death and reflected on her life's charity
effort that many today are still thankful for. On the first anniversary
of her death, a lady name Monica Besra from the small Indian village
of Dangram was having abdominal pain that was troubling her, in
which she testified that it was a tumor. She was healed by praying
to Mother Teresa and wore a medallion with a picture of her on it.
The Vatican's Congregation for Causes of Saints later reviewed and
accepted this miracle as authentic.
Testing
the Claim
How would one
test the claim of Monica Besra? Some believed that this miracle
happened, while others do not. What are certain facts surrounding
the event that can verify or falsify this miraculous claim? In other
words, though both sides have their views of this event's truth
claim, when one analyzes the facts surrounding the event, whose
expectation does it fulfill? These are areas to be explored.
It can be an
emotionally charged task at hand for those who seek the truth. Yet,
it must be admitted that logically, IF the events listed below were
true, then the miracle of Mother Teresa could not have happened.
These are things expected if the miracle did not take place:
- Monica
Besra's own husband's testimony denying that any miracles happened
- Monica
Besra's doctors testifying of her being healed by them
- West Bengal
government investigation concluding that medication healed her
If the events
listed above were true, it would indeed fulfilled the expectation
of those who reject the Mother Teresa miracle. Then again, if these
listed events were true, one would expect news report about it from
multiple independent news organizations. What is the evidence?
Monica Besra's
Testimony
As the husband
living with Monica Besra, the testimony of Seiku Murmu would be
interesting. Having interaction with her on a normal basis and to
be in the position to know what would be going on, his testimony
would be insightful. What does he have to say concerning his wife's
claim of being healed by Mother Teresa? His testimony, if consistent
with his wife's claim, would fulfill the expectation of those who
believe Mother Teresa's miracle did happen. But then again logically,
if it were not consistent with his wife's testimony this would help
present a powerful case against the miraculous claim. What have
multiple independent news organization have to report about Seiku
Murmu testimony?
'It is much
ado about nothing,' he told the Time magazine. 'My wife was
cured by the doctors and not by any miracle.'
The husband of Monica Besra who was reportedly cured miraculously
by Mother Teresa, has said his wife was cured by doctors and
not by miracle, a report has said. (See Footnote
1)
Besra's
husband Sekhu Murmu has also rejected claims that his wife was
cured by a miracle. (See Footnote 2)
Besra's
husband Sekhu Murmu told reporters that he believed his wife
had been cured by medication and not by a miracle. (See Footnote
3)
Besra's
husband Seiku has been reported as saying: 'It is much ado about
nothing. My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle.
She did feel less pain one night when she used the locket, but
her pain had been coming and going. Then she went to the doctors,
and they cured her.' They say there is a simple, scientific
explanation, and that Besra's tumour was in fact a tubercular
lump, the disappearance of which can be attributed to prescribed
drugs. (See Footnote 4)
The quotations
above from four news article shows clearly that Seiku Murmu does
not believe anything supernatural happened and that he described
his wife's healing as an act of being "cured by the doctors
and not any miracle." Lest in the future Seiku Murmu's testimony
changes, be warned that there would be cardinal beneficial reasons
why he would recant from his original testimony, as the London Telegraph
news article below by David Orr in Calcutta, India indicates:
"I'm very
proud of my wife," he says of Monica Besra, a Bengali tribal
woman who is leaving for Rome to attend Mother Teresa's beatification
by the Pope in two weeks' time. "A few years ago we had never
been outside our district in West Bengal. Now she will be travelling
to this far-off place and she will see many new things".
"Our situation was terrible and we didn't know what to do.
Now my children are being educated with the help of the nuns and
I have been able to buy a small piece of land. Everything has changed
for the better."
Monica Besra's
Doctor's Testimony
Added more weight
to Monica's husband's testimony against her claim, if her very own
doctors testify that they were the ones who treated her medically
and not some miracle, this would further damage the support of her
case. As seen below, with the following media reports:
Doctors
who treated Besra have even alleged that representatives of
the Roman Catholic Church had tried to tempt them into saying
that Mother Teresa's miracle had cured the tribal woman, a mother
of two. (See Footnote 6)
Those doctors,
and other authorities in west Bengal, reject the 'miracle' theory
and believe the whole episode is an elaborate hoax. (See Footnote
7)
Some of
the doctors who treated Monica Besra, for example, say that
there is no evidence of a miracle. They say that her tumour
was not fully grown and that her condition responded to medical
treatment.
"This miracle claim is absolute nonsense and should be
condemned by everyone," Dr Ranjan Kumar Mustafi, of Balurghat
Hospital in West Bengal, said. "She had a medium-sized
tumour in her lower abdomen caused by tuberculosis. The drugs
she was given eventually reduced the cystic mass and it disappeared
after a year's treatment." (See Footnote
8)
Notice how the
last excerpt above Dr. Ranjan Kumar Mustafi (who was one of Monica
Besra's doctor) stated that it was drugs prescription that healed
her. Pay attention to the next excerpt below and note the time period
and the type of treatment for Monica Besra's tumor:
A doctor
who treated Monica Besra, the tribal woman whom Mother Teresa
is believed to have miraculously cured, has alleged that some
persons claiming to represent the Roman Catholic Church and
the Missionaries of Charity are trying to pressurise him to
pass off the case as an inexplicable medical phenomenon.
Dr Manzur Murshed, superintendent of the Balurghat Hospital
in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal, said, "They
want us to say Monica Besra's recovery was a miracle and beyond
the comprehension of medical science."
According to Dr Murshed, in 1998 Besra received nine months
of anti-tubercular treatment for her abdominal tumour and was
cured.
"We advised her a prolonged anti-tubercular treatment,
which she followed and was cured," said Tapan Biswas, another
doctor who was part of the team that treated Besra. Dr Biswas
added, "With all due respect to Mother Teresa, there should
not be any talk of a miracle by her." (See Footnote
9)
The fact that
Besra received roughly nine months of anti-tubercular treatment
from her doctors does not make the claim of Mother Teresa's healing
very strong. On the contrary, it goes against it. There's also further
inconsistent or strange behavior that Besra's doctors have noted:
According
to Dr Tarun Biswas, a doctor at Balurghat district hospital,
Besra was admitted on June 11, 1998, with tubercular meningitis
and released four days later by which time two of her main complaints
headaches and vomiting had stopped. As she did not return, he
says he assumed she had been cured by the medication he prescribed.
In August, however, she returned to see the hospital's gynaecologist,
Dr Ranjan Mustafi, complaining of pain in the lower abdomen.
An ultrasonography test showed a lump.
Mustafi said he saw her on just one further occasion in May
1999 when she underwent a second ultrasonography test. This
time the lump did not show up. Apparently the 'miracle' had
occurred eight months earlier.
Doctors question why Besra bothered to return eight months later
when her medical problems if the story of her miraculous cure
is to be believed had long disappeared. They also noted that
this visit only took place after the six to eight months that
it would have taken for the medication to have been effective.
Mustafi said he was puzzled that she did not at any point ask
for medicines. 'She just asked for diagnosis,' he said. 'Whenever
I suggested treatment she would ask us just to tell her what
to do and that she'd get the medicines from Siliguri, Calcutta
or Delhi. This is not how ordinary rural patients talk.'
His view is echoed by Dr Manju Murshed, the hospital superintendent.
He described the behaviour of Besra, her relatives and the church
as 'unusual'. He said: '[She] was never interested in proper
treatment. Why would a patient, not apparently well off, go
without continuing treatment at a government hospital if she
was really serious about her complaints.' (See Footnote
10)
As seen above,
the doctors noted strange and unusual behavior. One in particular
that should be considered is this: The healing took place on the
first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death (September 5th, 1998).
Yet it took her eight months later (May, 1999) to check her stomach
to see if it was healed. It so happened that her prescribed medication
took full effect in six to eight months and she was taking this
medication for roughly nine months! Where does the doctors' testimony
stand in regards to the claim of Besra? May it be reminded:
But the
doctor who first diagnosed Besra, says the church should not
push Besra's case because it was medication, not a miracle that
cured her.
"It is scientifically proven that the tumor that she had
was linked to tuberculosis," he said. "And it responded
to an anti-tubercular drug." (See Footnote
11)
West Bengal's
Government Investigation
Besides Roman
Catholic authorities, have any other outside party looked into Besra's
Mother Teresa's miracle? If so, what did they do and what was their
finding? It so happened that the West Bengal's government had conducted
their own inquiry into this matter. What was the government's conclusion?
The West
Bengal government has rejected as ridiculous the Vatican's claim
that Mother Teresa had miraculously cured a woman suffering
from a tumour. An inquiry ordered by the government has concluded
that Monica Besra was cured of the ovarian tumour after months
of medication, not by wearing a medallion with Mother Teresa's
photograph.
The government's inquiry, which ended on Friday, was headed
by South Dinajpur Additional District Magistrate Goutam Ghosh…Arun
Sarkar, an official of the Harirampur block, interviewed villagers,
doctors, and members of the Besra family before concluding that
any talk of a miracle in the woman's cure was baseless.
'Monica Besra's tumour was cured purely by medical science.
She received continuous anti-tubercular treatment and went through
all the necessary curative processes. So any talk of her case
being beyond the comprehension of medical science is baseless,'
Ghosh told reporters on Saturday. (See Footnote
12)
State health
minister Suryakanta Mishra has also commented on the case stating
that Besra's recovery was the result of nothing more than medication
being 'administered for some disease and the patient responding'.
(See Footnote 13)
We see that
the West Bengal Government rejected the miracle of Mother Teresa
after their investigation. Having interviewed other "villagers,
doctors and members of Besra family", does their conclusion
support the expectation of those who reject the claim of Besra or
those who accepts the claim?
Conclusion
This
article seeks to find and proclaim the Truth, not as a hate intent
material against individual Roman Catholics. The article has evaluated
three areas related to Monica Besra's claim of Mother Teresa healing,
which was the basis of Mother Teresa's Beatification and road towards
sainthood. Monica Besra's own husband rejected her claim. Her own
doctors complimented this with further information of her receiving
medication and treatment. West Bengal's own government has looked
into the miraculous claim and rejected it. Logically, this does
not fulfill the expectation of those who accepts the miracle of
Mother Teresa. It fulfills the expectation of those who have rejected
it. On this ground, one must reject the claim also. It can be disappointing,
but may the reader turn to the Great Physician himself, who performed
the greatest healing feat in history: Though man has been lost and
sinned against God, through the Great Physician, namely Jesus Christ
bloody crucifixion, death and resurrection, all humans of all cultures,
class and gender can be saved through Him, to be healed from an
eternal death, despair and damnation. As the Great Physician Himself
said:
"Jesus answered them: ' It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance." (Luke 5:31-2)
By
Jimmy Li
Footnotes
- "Besra's
husband says doctors cured her, not Mother Teresa", Indian
Express (October 14th, 2002) also at http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=15798
- M Chhaya,
"West Bengal rejects Mother Teresa's miracle", Rediff.com
news (October 19th, 2002) at http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/19teres1.htm
- M Chhaya,
"Doctor claims pressure to ratify Teresa's 'miracle'",
Rediff.com news (October 19th, 2002) at http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/19teresa.htm
- "Is
Mother Teresa's miracle a fake?", Scotland's Sunday Herald
(October 20th, 2002) at http://www.sundayherald.com/28561/
- David Orr,
"Medicine cured 'miracle' woman - not Mother Teresa, say
doctors", London Telegraph (October 5th, 2003)
- M Chhaya,
"West Bengal rejects Mother Teresa's miracle", Rediff.com
news (October 19th, 2002) at http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/19teres1.htm
- "Is
Mother Teresa's miracle a fake?", Scotland's Sunday Herald
(October 20th, 2002) at http://www.sundayherald.com/28561/
- David Orr,
"Medicine cured 'miracle' woman - not Mother Teresa, say
doctors", London Telegraph (October 5th, 2003)
- M Chhaya,
"Doctor claims pressure to ratify Teresa's 'miracle'",
Rediff.com news (October 19th, 2002) at http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/19teresa.htm
- "Is
Mother Teresa's miracle a fake?", Scotland's Sunday Herald
(October 20th, 2002) at http://www.sundayherald.com/28561/
- Satinder
Bindra, "Doubt over Mother Teresa's miracle", CNN news
(October 17th, 2003) at http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/17/vatican.teresa/index.html
- M Chhaya,
"West Bengal rejects Mother Teresa's miracle", Rediff.com
news (October 19th, 2002) at http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/19teres1.htm
- "Is
Mother Teresa's miracle a fake?", Scotland's Sunday Herald
(October 20th, 2002) at http://www.sundayherald.com/28561/
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