  Having just completed the first chapter of Missionary Position , some thoughts: The chapter recounts the story of the making of a documentary by a team of British journalists/filmmakers. The documentary, and subsequent book, are the starting point of MoTo's international renown. Much of the chapter reflects little on the woman herself, and more on the disquieting fascination one of the journalists, Malcolm Muggeridge, has for her. When they shoot the interior of the sick house on a new type of film and everything comes out perfectly despite the poor lighting conditions, Muggeridge declares it is "divine light" and that he has captured a miracle on film. His cameraman disagrees, saying it is simply a technological advance. I'll trust the film expert on this one. Still, I think it a little weak for Hitch to elliptically blame MoTo for this. She can't help what all her followers say.
Of course, there are many troubling passages related here, included endless instances in which she proclaims that the work should not be done for itself, but only as a religious duty. Helping the poor is just another form of prayer, in essence, and "we are not social workers. " Mother Teresa creates a moral and social dynamic in which "helping the poor" is a form of veneration of the Lord, and the poor become little more than a catalyst. The real action is not between the nuns and the poor, but between the nuns and God, with the poor as something akin to the Eucharist. Furthermore, there are her disquieting, but entirely Catholic, views on abortion and contraception.
I will not argue with her views on abortion, as I realize how tricky that particular issue is, and can understand (while disagreeing) with the religious stance against it. I am less reserved about population control however. As Hitchens points out, "there are many ways to get the population question wrong" (such as sterilization, forced abortion or the disastrous China policy), but MoTo's insistence that "there cannot be too many children" is appalling and grotesque. Still, for her there can't be too many children, as more poor children mean more chances to venerate the Lord and perform her "good deeds," and more opportunities for miracles to be attributed to her intercession.
Then she says that God always provides, and compares the suffering of the poor to "birds and flowers. " Of course, there can be too many birds, and when there are they die in huge numbers. So, MoTo is advocating, as nearly all conservatives essentially do on the issue of population policy, that we must not do anything to stop babies from being born, but once they are born they must suffer their fate gladly, and die if they must. Such a policy can in no way be seen as humane or rational. Whether or not it is spiritual I'll leave to the Pope and the 500 people he's made into saints in the last 25 years. 
