An interview with the woman who has done so much

to allevi­ate the suffering of the sick and poor.

Calcutta is a teeming, frenzied city where life and death seem to collide at every comer. Every­where you look there are rick­shaws and cattle wandering through the streets, children sleeping beside busy six-lane roads with traffic thundering past. It is also a city which has seen better days: dirt and decay are everywhere. In many ways it is a desperate place, but in the midst of all this desperation, there is hope, in the shape of a small, stooped figure whose name is known throughout the world: Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa's deeply-lined face and gnarled, bare feet are testimony to a hard life. She is visibly frail and in recent years has undergone several operations. The slight tilt of her head as she talks, the soft smile which lights up her face, and the laughter in her eyes, all make her much more approachable than you'd imagine. Her strength is one of conviction and courage, and even those who claim not to be religious cannot but feel blessed when near her, knowing they will never again meet someone who so whole­heartedly embraces other people's suffering as if it were her own.

She is always helping some­one, and although her failing he­alth prevents her going into the slums as much as she used to, people still come to her with their problems, be they Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. Tolerance towards other religions is increas­ingly her message.

She once said: 'The only way to remove poverty is by sharing.' Mother Teresa herself shares the austere life of her sisters com­pletely, and she, like all the sis­ters, eats the same food as is given to the poor.

Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Nobel Prizes are awards granted annually to persons or institutions for outstanding contributions during the previous year in physics, chem­istry, physiology or medicine, literat­ure, international peace, and eco­nomics. The prizes are awarded from the interest accruing from a trust fund set up by the Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Bernhard Nobel. The Peace Prize is awarded by a Committee of five persons elected by the Norwegian Storting, while the other prizes are awarded by different Swedish academies and insti­tutes. In addition to a cash award, each win­ner also receives a gold medal and a dip­loma bearing his or her name and field of achievement.

Interviewer: Mother Teresa, do you have any special message for people?

Mother Teresa: Yes, and it's a very simple message: To love one another as God loves them. If we could love each other then there wouldn't be nearly so much suf­fering in the world. Also, I don't think everyone realises how important the family is. If we could bring back love into the family, the world would change.

I: There are lots of volunteers who work with you here. Where do they come from?

MT: They come from all over the world. Some stay a long time, some go after a few months, but many come back again later on in their lives to visit. You see, we wouldn't be able to do our work without our volunteers. They all tell me that when they go back home they feel very different from when they first arrived. The experience changes them because they see what it is like to suffer. Just look at all the dif­ferent races. This is how the world could be. Our volunteers come here to the Mother House in the morn­ing for 6 o'clock mass and then they go off to help in one of our various houses. And all that we give them is a cup of tea!

I: Are all your volunteers Roman Catholic?

MT: I don't know, I don't ask. All I know is that they come here be­cause they want to give. Some are nurses, some doctors, and a lot are students. But we have older peo­ple too who have lived a life and want to give to others less fortu­nate than themselves.

I: Why is self-denial so important in your Order?

MT: How can we even begin to understand the suffering of the poor if we don't suffer? Only by self-denial can we experience poverty for ourselves. We need a clean heart, then we can help.

I: Where does the money come from to run your centres all over the world?

MT: God has looked after us. Peo­ple are good to us and every day money comes. A lot of it is what I call sacrifice money.

I: What does your organisation then spend the money on?

MT: As soon as the money comes in, it goes straight out again. But mostly it is spent on food. We spend 100,000 rupees each month on rice alone. What is wonderful is that everyone gives - Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

I: Is it only the affluent who give?

MT: No, even the poorest of the poor give. The other day a very poor beggar came up to me and said, 'Everyone gives to you and I also want to give you 20 paisa' - which is about 2p. I thought to myself, what do I do? If I take it he won't have anything to eat, but if I don't take it I would hurt him so much. So I took it, and he was so happy because he had given to Mother Teresa of Calcutta to help the poor. Also there was this young couple who came to me to get my blessing. They had just got married and they gave me 10,000 rupees. They said they had had a very quiet wedding, with only their closest relatives, and no wedding dress and no party. They said they did this because they wanted to give the money they had saved to the poor.

I: Mother, you once said that one of the greatest diseases is to be no­body to anyone. What did you mean?

MT: The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being unwanted. People need to be loved - all peo­ple, whether they are drunkards, drug addicts, prostitutes or peo­ple with AIDS. Without love people die.

I: Is AIDS a big problem in Cal­cutta?

MT: It is a problem but it's not recognised as one yet. We have people with AIDS in our Home of the Dying but we don't know how many because it's not our business to diagnose. In Bombay it's more of a problem, especially among prostitutes, and there we have started a house for people with AIDS.

I: Do you help all people with AIDS, or only the so-called 'inno­cent victims'. What I mean is, are the sisters less willing to offer help to gay men or drug users?

MT: How they get AIDS is none of my business. Everyone is equal in my eyes whether they are world statesmen or the people who live in the street outside this house. We help people with AIDS all over the world - including Britain, Spain, Italy and America.

I: The recent International Confe­rence on Population and Develop­ment held in Cairo spoke of a major cata­strophe if the world's population carries on growing at such a rate. Does this alter you views on birth control and abortion?

MT: No, because we are fight ing abortion through adop­tion. Some 3,000 children have now been adopted from our house in Calcutta and gone to families all round the world. There are many, many people who cannot have children and to be given one of our unwanted babies makes them so happy.

I: Do you ever get distressed by all the terrible suffering you see around you in Calcutta?

MT: If I were to keep on worrying about myself and my feelings I'd never be able to remove the suf­fering of the people. I try to give them love and hope and that is wonderful work.

I: When you meet internationally prominent men and women do you ever find yourself, against your better nature, treating them in a different way to ordinary people because of their status?

MT: To me everyone is equal. I can't see it in any other way. Spiritually both have to go to heaven. World leaders accept that I don't favour them.

I: When Pope John Paul II visited you here, you said it was the hap­piest day of your life. What moved you so much about that occasion?

MT: When he arrived in Calcutta he didn't come here but went straight to the Home for the Dying. That was his priority. After that, whenever we met in Rome I would say to him, 'You have so much space in front of the Vatican, Holy Father. Why don't you give me a house for all these people in your city who need help?' I think it was on my third visit that he handed me a set of keys. It was a home in Rome. Here we give shelter to 85 women who were forced into prostitution as their only means of survival.

I: Before you received your calling to be a nun, Mother, were you ever in love?

MT: Yes, but with my family - and then I went to God. I had a wonderful family. The family is so important. It really is the most important thing of all. A family who prays together stays toget­her. And if you stay together and love each other then there will be peace in the world.

I: You've recently celebrated your 84th birthday. Are you at all afraid of dying?

MT: How can I be, when I have watched and been with so many who have died. Dying is going home to God. You come from there and you go back there. I’ve never been afraid. No, on the contrary, I look forward to it.

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