One of the best analyses of Mother Theresa's long, long dark night comes from "gay and somewhat skeptical Catholic" Richard Rodriguez in this interview with The Nation.
The preoccupation with the illegal immigration and the price that the middle class is paying for these peasants coming from Latin America--because that's what they are: peasants. They are a drag on our national identity and a burden to us. Yet we sing our songs on Sunday because we are good pious Americans who believe in the middle-class God.
We are presented with an Albanian nun who spends her life--tormented by doubts--nonetheless serving the very poor, the people we will not touch....
We mock a life like this because we do not understand it. We do not understand the life that is given to poor people, because we are given only to the middle-class fascination and we have told ourselves that we--the middle class--are God's select. So what do we do when we meet a woman of great doubt, great faith, great durability, who spends her life on her knees, wiping the faces of the dying and dead?
The whole article, even his lamentations against Church teaching, is interesting and thought-provoking.
