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THE MISSIONARY OF CHARITY WAY
Confronted with the changes that the Roman Catholic Church faced
as a result of Pope John XXIII’s Second Vatican Council from 1962 to
1965, many of the Church’s religious orders struggled to find their place
in the changing world. The pope’s goal was to revitalize the church, and
he believed that changes in the liturgy and in some of the rules govern-
ing religious orders would make an effective beginning. However, in the
wake of the Second Vatican Council, many religious orders not only im-
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plemented changes, but tried to make the religious vocations more
meaningful and pertinent to keep in step with the twentieth century.
Not everyone welcomed these changes; some orders preferred the old
ways.
Beginning in the 1970s, many religious orders underwent dramatic
transformations as the Catholic Church struggled to become more mod-
ern and accessible to its followers. For some women’s religious congrega-
tions, these changes meant modifying the nun’s habit, and in some cases
completely forgoing it. Many nuns believed that if one was to be of gen-
uine service in the world, then one must wear the clothes of the real
world. Others believed that by leaving behind their religious habit, which
was often viewed as a barrier to working with the public, they would make
people feel more comfortable around them. The practice of doing away
with the religious uniform also encouraged individuality among the
order’s nuns, and hopefully along with it, one’s particular talents. Others
eased their rules in order to attract potential applicants to their order, es-
pecially those women with backgrounds in social services, medicine, or
other advanced degrees.
However, in the case of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa
made virtually no concessions; even today, the order continues to attract
many young women who wish to take the vows of extreme poverty and
give their lives over to the service of the poor. Everything about the life of
a Missionary of Charity emphasizes the long-held ideal of caring feminin-
ity; that is, the traditional role of women as caretakers subservient to men.
It is an ideal that also asks one to suppress one’s own will for the common
good. The image is a particularly potent one in Western culture, where a
woman in a nun’s habit ministering to the needs of the ill and poor is seen
as the epitome of female selflessness, despite the efforts of the modern-day
women’s movement to counteract this image.
Even the manner in which Mother Teresa spoke of her order reinforced
this ideal. To Mother Teresa, she and her nuns were the wives of Christ
crucified, their bond to God like a mystical marriage; she described the
love that the Missionaries of Charity professed for Jesus in terms similar to
the love between husband and wife. This is an even more dramatic con-
trast to the thinking of many of today’s religious orders, who find the no-
tion of a nun as a bride of Christ not only outdated, but ridiculous.
In establishing the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa also made it
clear that she would brook no interference from priests, or meddling, no
matter how well-intentioned, from outsiders. She also deflected any ad-
vice about how to teach her nuns. This rigid sense of control has had some
impact on the order. Although one can understand the decision not to
“ R I G O R O U S P OV E RT Y I S O U R S A F E G U A R D ”
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have televisions in the homes of monastics, it was harder for outsiders to
understand the absence of newspapers or magazines; in fact, there is little
in the way of reading material at any of the homes. Being informed about
world events, Mother Teresa thought, was a distraction. She preferred to
put her trust in God, who would make known to her all that she needed
to know. What books were available for the nuns tended to be of a reli-
gious nature, such as books on piety or the lives of the saints. Except for
the nuns who became medical doctors, Mother Teresa did not want her
sisters to be any better informed or educated than those they were trying
to serve, a startling contrast to orders that encouraged their members to
seek advanced college degrees or specialized training.
This practice drew a great deal of criticism from within the Church.
Some officials believe that education is necessary, not just the knowledge
of theology but also of secular disciplines. Mother Teresa’s attitude to-
ward education is especially puzzling since she herself valued education.
Perhaps she came to regard education, like wealth and worldly goods, as
a source of vanity that the devout ought to sacrifice to the glory of the
Lord.
Mother Teresa left her imprint on almost every aspect of the order.
The old-fashioned discipline and rigid obedience required was and is
today, more than some can bear. Some did not like being told what to do
all the time. Others felt that even as the women grew older and more
senior in the order’s hierarchy, they were often forced to maintain a
student-teacher relationship with Mother Teresa. For many, that clearly
was no longer appropriate and had the effect of preventing the women
from growing up. Some even felt uncomfortable using the term “Mother”
as it denoted a childish dependence on Mother Teresa, which she en-
couraged.
Others, though, found themselves drawn to the Missionaries of Char-
ity precisely because they did not have to grow up and make difficult de-
cisions that adulthood requires. The black-and-white life of the order is
such that those who are immature will have an easier time coping with its
rigors than those who are prone to questioning and learning. This is in
contrast to what was taking place in other orders, as rules became more re-
laxed and nuns allowed to make more of their own decisions. The reforms
of Vatican Council II, ironically, also contributed to a drop in vocations.
In 1990, the number of women in religious orders had dropped by more
than half, from a record high of almost a million women serving as nuns
in 1970. Today, third-world vocations continue to increase, while in the
West, the numbers continue to decline.
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