(CNN)When Pope Francis canonizes the late Mother Teresa at the Vatican on September 4th,she will officially be recognized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
For her followers, the title is a mere formality. They believe the world renowned humanitarian displayed saintly qualities throughout a life dedicated to serving the poor.
But saintly is not a word everyone uses for Mother Teresa.Her critics say she was anything but.
"Scene from World War 2"
Disillusioned former volunteer Hemley Gonzalez didn"t meet her in person, but what he calls the "horrific remnants of her legacy" have left him deeply uncomfortable. After visiting the facilities she"s responsible for starting, he feels only a "troubled individual" could have set them up.
After the financial crisis of 2008, Gonzalez took a break from his real estate business in Miami and headed to India, where he spent two months volunteering at Nirmal Hriday, a home for the dying run by Mother Teresa"s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta"s (now Kolkata) crowded Kalighat area.
Gonzalez says he was appalled at the poor level of hygiene and medical care he saw there. He says the organization didn"t vet him or the other volunteers. None, including himself, had any medical experience or received any training before working at the hospice.
He claims he saw nuns routinely reuse needles after washing them in tap water, that clothes -- sometimes soiled with urine and feces -- and cooking utensils were hand washed side by side in the same room.
Patients suffering from respiratory diseases had to bathe in freezing water because a single water heater wasn"t barely enough for one bath, he says. And he claims there was not a single doctor or medically trained nurse at the hospice.
"It was a scene out of a World War II concentration camp," says Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says attempts to raise a red flag or offer to install a water heater were always met with the same response by the nuns. "We don"t do that here. This is the way Jesus wants it,they"d say,"Gonzalez tells us.
Basic care for poorest of poor
Chhanda Chakraborti is part of a group of local Kolkata volunteers who has been associated with the Missionaries of Charity for over 25 years.She served at Nirmal Hriday for several years before Gonzalez did.
Museum of poverty, or place of service?
As these controversies rage on, life inside Mother Teresa"s homes carries on as usual, with the same simplicity and routine that"s been in place for decades.
According to Gonzalez, it"s a "museum of poverty." To some, it"s a place of selfless service.
A group of nuns will travel to the Vatican for the canonization ceremony in September, and those who remain in Kolkata will mark the day with prayers of thanks.
For them and other devout followers around the world, Mother Teresa was and will forever be, a saint, and no amount of controversy can change that.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/asia/mother-teresa-controversies/index.html
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