5. Questionable Associations
In 1980, Mother Teresa accepted the Haitian Legion of Honour Award from the leader of Haiti, “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Human Rights Watch claimed that under Duvalier’s presidency, thousands were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled into exile. He was also accused of corruption, stealing money from the Haitian economy to give to his family and to finance his extravagant lifestyle. In his documentary about Mother Teresa, Hell’s Angel, Christopher Hitchens says that Mother Teresa painted a very different picture of Duvalier during her visit. Hitchens says that Mother Teresa told “astonished” journalists, that she had “never seen the poor people being so familiar with their head of state as they were with the Duvalier’s.”
Hitchens further criticized Mother Teresa for accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 20, 1985, from President Regan, whom he claimed, had “armed and paid the death squads of Central America.” Hitchens also claimed that “Regan’s proxies murdered four American nuns and the Catholic archbishop of San Salvador at the very moment he was celebrating mass.” Hitchens added that “after touring the killing fields of Guatemala” that Mother Teresa said that “everything was peaceful in the parts of the country we visited” and that she did not “get involved in that sort of politics.”
Mother Teresa was also criticized for her friendship with Charles Keating, who was one of the key figures involved in the 1980s savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, which cost the American taxpayer $124 billion. Keating donated millions of dollars to Mother Teresa’s charities and even granted her use of his private jet while she was in America. Her association with Keating had a negative impact on her reputation and she was further criticized for the character statement she provided during his case, as well as her plea for leniency on his behalf.