Honoring Mother Teresa
The Missionaries of Charity have created a Web page devoted to the upcoming centenary of Mother Teresa’s birth, which will be celebrated on August 26. It’s an island of calm that features, among other things, a recording of Mother Teresa reciting the Prayer of St. Francis.
The prayer, though written in the 20th century, is a fitting way to remember the example of both Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Calcutta for their humility, compassion for all, and willingness to forgive all wrongs.
Not fitting, though, is to make Mother Teresa’s centenary an occasion for manufactured outrage, resentment and religiously based anger. In case you haven’t noticed, the Catholic League is up to “Day 17 of the protest campaign for Mother Teresa.” The latest from the Catholic League’s president, Bill Donohue:
Today I am writing to every Catholic college and university in the state of New York informing them of our protest demonstration on August 26 outside the Empire State Building on 34th Street and 5th Avenue.
The rally is being held to protest the decision of Anthony Malkin, the owner of the storied building, not to overrule those who have chosen to deny a tribute to Mother Teresa: our request to have the towers shine blue and white, the colors of her congregation, on August 26th, the 100th anniversary of her birthday, was denied without explanation. Yet the same persons who chose to stiff Mother Teresa decided to honor the Chinese Communist revolution last year, even though 77 million innocent men, women and children were murdered under Mao Zedong.
It is true that roughly 130 times a year, management of the Empire State Building sends a team of five workers to change the colors of the 180 lights that illuminate the skyscraper’s spire. It takes them six hours to snap on a two-foot colored disc over each light, according to an article earlier this year in The Record, a New Jersey newspaper.
Easter, Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day are celebrated in light, and other recent events included Caribbean Week, university graduations, the March of Dimes and, yes, the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
I don’t know why the Empire State Building refuses to change its lights to honor Mother Teresa; the Malkin company’s public relations firm, Edelman, wouldn’t say when I called. I don’t know why the Chinese government was honored, although it is safe to say that real estate tycoons such as the Malkins are not Maoists. (They would seem very unlikely targets of red-baiting.)
Mr. Donohue, meanwhile, is playing this for all it is worth in media exposure. He says he has been writing letters to every Catholic high school in the New York region, to all the bishops of the U.S. and India, to government officials at many levels, all urging what he evidently hopes will be a mass demonstration of Catholic influence and outrage outside the Empire State Building on the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth. He is determined to bend the building’s owners to his will.
But the way to honor Mother Teresa is to emulate her. To turn her centenary into an occasion for exaggerating wrongs rather than forgiving them, for fanning discord and resentment rather than creating harmony, would be to misuse Mother Teresa’s legacy as an instrument for something other than peace.
Tags: Mother Teresa
“… stiff Mother Teresa”?
Aside from the declasse tone of that phrase, I wonder if it is possible for the operator of the earthly lights of the Empire State Building to “stiff” a saint who enjoys the celestial lights of all the heavens.
This is one of those instances where Donohue goes out to make himself as obnoxious as possible and then, when people respond predictably, he cries “discrimination!!!”
dotCommonweal is turning into http://www.ihatebilldonohue.com Perhaps a name change is in order?
I don’t hate Bill Donohue. I think he is deeply misguided about where anti-Catholicism exists.
Maybe We should ban all statues of Caesar and Augustus because the Romans crucified Christ. I don’t understand why Jesus, instead of preaching to the poor, healing the sick and curing the blind, did not make a major effort to change Roman legislation. The Catholic League as well as the Vatican are into defending material things and honors and lost their way. When we realize that Donohue basically represents an Empire and not the cause of Jesus Christ we will understand his irrelevance.
Paul has it right. “But the way to honor Mother Teresa is to emulate her. To turn her centenary into an occasion for exaggerating wrongs rather than forgiving them, for fanning discord and resentment rather than creating harmony, would be to misuse Mother Teresa’s legacy as an instrument for something other than peace.”
Despite the two-week siege, I don’t see too many people taking this bait from Donohue. It’s just too easy to see the phony-outrage machine at work — there is simply no insult to get upset about. (Even “refuses to change its lights” gives too much ground to Donohue’s interpretation, I think — “declines to change its lights” sounds more accurate to me.) It comes down to Donohue protesting the fact that the rest of the world won’t cooperate with his whims.
It’s very hard to believe honoring Mother Teresa was ever the primary objective here. Submitting the proposal to the ESB was a perfect attention-getting opportunity for Donohue: if they said yes, he would’ve called it to the attention of some group organized against the establishment of religion (they’ve already gone after the postage stamp, and surely he could get another complaint out of them), and then he could be outraged over their outrage. And if the ESB said no (as they have), he could accuse them of anti-Catholic bigotry. Either way: angry press releases all summer long!
Thank God for the vigilance of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League. The color of light bulbs used in some building in NYC is an injustice that cries out to heaven.
Blue and White are also the flag colors of Israel, Greece, Ecuador, and the Branch Dividians. Maybe they just wanted to stay away from politics for the summer.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Blue_and_white_flags
It’s not enough to focus merely on the Empire State Building. Two other New York landmark buildings also change their lighting to correspond to special events: the old Met Life building (which is modeled after the Campanile in St. Mark’s piazza in Venice) and the Con Ed building (which is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the wonders of the ancient world). Unless all three are in sync the faithful will be confused and scandalized.
Incidentally, Christopher Hitchens, the long-time antagonist of Mother Teresa, is speaking at the New York Public Library tonight. Donohue once tangled with Hitchens about MT but proclaims: “although I strongly disagree with him, the man is no phony, and that means a great deal to me. Unlike most of those whom I do battle with, Hitchens is intellectually honest.”
http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1711
“The color of light bulbs used in some building in NYC is an injustice that cries out to heaven.”
Hahahahaha! Vernor’s is on me!
Seriously, what rankles about this kind of trumped up stunt to bombard the management staff at the Empire State Building with cards and letters of indignation is that it would distract Catholic children and college students from the real mission of the Church, which is to feed the poor, treat the sick, and comfort the dying–all the things that Mother Teresa did.
I hope Mollie is right that Bill’s harrumphing is not getting too many dittos.
From Donahue’s press release linked to by Patrick Molloy:
“A few years back, Christopher wrote a piece in Vanity Fair on abortion that was so fair that it moved me to write a letter in praise of it; it was published. In other words, this is not the first time we have broken bread. But who needs the bread? Christopher and I have some serious drinking to do. ”
Great minds drink alike.