Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, cl@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, March 11, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- Bill Donohue comments on an article published by Serge Larivée et al. in a Canadian journal, Studies in Religion, on Mother Teresa:

This attack on Mother Teresa is a rehash of a book written by the late atheist, Christopher Hitchens, The Missionary Position. Indeed, no one is cited more in this piece than Hitchens. Not surprisingly, the lead author, Serge Larivée, is a devout atheist, as is at least one of the co-authors.

The authors write of Mother Teresa's "rather dubious way of caring for the sick, her questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding, in particular, abortion, contraception, and divorce."

Atheists have no reference base to assess someone who comforts the dying, which is why Mother Teresa perplexes them (their way of comforting the dying is to euthanize them). They also don't understand why anyone would say the terminally ill "are suffering like Christ on the cross." Her contacts with dictators like Duvalier of Haiti were entirely justified; they provided her with access to the sick and dying. It is true she took money from the rich, and her clients were delighted she did so. It is also correct to say she was dogmatic in her crusade to defend the civil rights of innocent unborn children.

The authors attack me for lacing Hitchens. In my review of his book [click here], I said that it "is a 98 page essay printed on eight-and-a-half by five-and-a-half inch paper," and that it "contains no footnotes, no citations of any kind." For them to depend so heavily on a book that provides not a scintilla of evidence speaks volumes (I told Hitchens to his face that if he were one of my students he would have been given an "F").

What drove Hitchens to hate Mother Teresa, and what accounts for the assault by these atheists, is her altruism. The University of Montreal news release touting the article says the goal is to dispel the "myth of altruism" surrounding her. They failed. Finally, on four occasions the release spells her name "Theresa." News Flash: the saintly nun had no "h" in her name. So much for accuracy, as well as credibility.