Donations likely to shrink as Mother House order changes

A couple of days after Mother Teresa's death, little seems to have changed in Prem Daan (literally, Gift of Love), a Missionaries of Charity hospice for the sick, destitute, and unwanted on the eastern outskirts of Calcutta. The mostly illiterate women inmates cried, fretted, whined, gossiped and even laughed as usual. Many of them were more concern about their own problems and miseries and anguish. Few were aware that Mother Teresa had died; she was a distant figure to the inmates.

One educated woman, in her early 50s, was surprised to hear of Mother Teresa's death. "Oh! Really? I haven't read the newspapers today," and then soon returned to narrating her ailments.

No pall of grief pervaded the ward. Mother Teresa had passed away, but her work was continuing just as before. "She is in heaven now, watching us," said one of the young women who works at Prem Daan. Young women in white saris and pink aprons scurried up and down the aisles, distributing food. They joked with the inmates, admonished those who refused to eat, and comforted a woman who wept uncontrollably. The women went about their work with great vigour and, clearly, with a sense of fun.

But Mother Teresa's death raises some important questions. Will the Missionaries of Charity's many homes and institutes around the world continue to work with the same enthusiasm? Will donations keep coming in without her presence and charisma? Will the order continue to grow?

"The order won't lose its vigour," said one of its senior nuns. "Mother may not be with us in the flesh, but she is with us spiritually and we will continue to feel her presence. The work will go on. Each of us got our own call to serve God through the poor; when I got mine and decided to dedicate my life to the poor, I had not even heard of Mother. She was not so well-known then. My uncle, a Jesuit priest, told me about the Missionaries of Charity and wrote to Calcutta."

In the early days, the Missionaries of Charity (founded in 1950) was a largely unknown order, struggling to survive. "They were the heroic years," says Father Edward Le Joly, a Belgian-born Jesuit in Calcutta and author of two books on Mother Teresa. That was when, wrote Father Le Joly, "Mother Teresa had to work in pure faith, uncertain of the morrow, seeking support, companions, work recognition."

Thirty years later came the period Father Le Joly calls the "glorious years." Mother Teresa had won the Nobel Prize in 1979, and such was her popularity and goodwill that she merely asked and it was given. When she approached Mayor Ed Koch of New York for a suitable house for AIDS patients in 1985, it was provided to the Missionaries of Charity in one day.

"This advantage Mother Teresa's successors will never have," feels Father Le Joly. "They will not enjoy the influence Mother Teresa had on presidents, prime ministers and kings." And that, among other things, could hamper expansion.

Mother Teresa opened Missionaries of Charity homes across the world. "She had glamour, she had power, she was special," one Calcutta priest said. "Sister Nirmala and others who succeed her will be like the scores of other superiors of women's religious institutes."

Mother Teresa also had an extraordinary "spiritual friendship" with Pope John Paul II. When the Pope visited Calcutta in 1986, he showered more praises on her than he had on any living person, and even crowned Mother Teresa with a garland the public had presented him. Later, he agreed to provide accommodation for a Missionaries of Charity house for dying destitutes in the Vatican City. The Vatican had never before housed a charitable institution, and this was an unprecedented decision. Father Le Joly and others do not fear a diminishing regard for the order in the Vatican, but doubt if the special equation will remain.

A major fear concerns the drying up of funds, particularly from abroad. "Recently, an Indian businessman donated Rs 2.5 million," said Father Le Joly. "That kind of money will not come so easily with Mother gone." While the homes in Western countries are largely self-supporting, those in India and other developing nations still depend on donations from the rich. If that shrinks, there could be trouble. Appeals by Sister Nirmala or other nuns may not quite evoke the earlier response because they are hardly known outside the cloister.

In a way, Mother Teresa was responsible for the relative anonymity of the order's senior nuns. "She reserved all contacts with the media to herself and discouraged her sisters from speaking to the press or making public appearances," said Father Le Joly.

That could have had some positive results. With powers centralised, Mother Teresa could take quick decisions about projects and set deadlines that few other heads of religious orders dared to. Some fear the Missionaries of Charity will now become institutionalised, a slow-moving religious bureaucracy.

Mother Teresa did begin to delegate power in the 1990s, especially after her third heart attack in 1992. She had sought permission from the Holy See to resign as superior-general in 1992, but the sisters reelected her for six more years) "By 1993, Sister Frederick, the first councillor, was running the day-to-day activities of the order," said Le Joly. Sister Frederick, 81, the seniormost nun, was widely tipped to succeed Mother Teresa when elections were held in March for a new superior-general. But her age, perhaps, went against her. Sister Nirmala, was eventually elected.

Described by many as "very kind and humble," she is considered a good administrator, something that will be severely tested in the years ahead. As Father C Bouche, spiritual advisor to the Missionaries of Charity, said, "There is a huge burden on Sister Nirmala's shoulders. The world is watching her closely and it will not be easy."

"Sister Nirmala did not take Mother's place," said Father Le Joly. "She was humbly in the background during the past six months (after assuming office). But she will have to take the lead now."

Certainly, the situation will not be the same at Mother House, headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity. "But the work will carry on, it will continue," said Father Drugman, a Calcutta priest. "They have their constitution, the infrastructure, the network, and Mother's inspiration. It will go on much the same way it has."

Compiled from the Indian media