Missionaries of Charity

Missionaries of Charity, Roman Catholic congregation of religious women dedicated to the poor, particularly to the destitute of India, founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1950. That same year the order received canonical sanction from Pope Pius XII, and in 1965 it became a pontifical congregation (subject only to the pope). Relying on donations from individuals, groups, and sometimes government funds, the Missionaries of Charity live simple lives of poverty and austerity and seek to minister to some of the most marginalized members of society, including orphans and abandoned children, the elderly, people with physical or mental disabilities, the homeless, the dying, and people with leprosy, addiction, or HIV/AIDS. By the first quarter of the 21st century, the order had about 5,000 sisters active in more than 130 countries.

In 1946 Mother Teresa experienced her “call within a call,” which she considered divine inspiration to devote herself to caring for the sick and poor. She left her teaching position at a Kolkata school run by the Sisters of Loreto in 1948 and moved into the city’s impoverished districts, where she founded the Missionaries of Charity. There were 12 original sisters, many of whom had followed her from the Loreto Sisters’ school. Burdened by the hardships faced by the poor around her, Mother Teresa described her vision for the order:

The aim of the Missionary Sisters of Charity is to devote themselves heart and soul and exclusively to the material and spiritual welfare of all destitute people, the helpless poor, neglected children, the abandoned sick, lepers, and deserving beggars—in short all those unfortunates who, either through their own neglect or through lack of public concern, are left to drift through life without help or hope.

Some of the order’s earliest efforts were to open schools, medical dispensaries, and food distribution centers. In the 1950s many of the local hospitals in Kolkata could not accept poor people who were deemed to be beyond medical help; such destitute people were sometimes left to die in the streets if their families were unable to care for them. In 1952 Mother Teresa established Nirmal Hriday (“Home for the Pure of Heart”), a hospice where people with terminal illnesses could die with dignity. Her order also opened numerous centers serving people who are blind or elderly and people with disabilities. Under Mother Teresa’s guidance, the Missionaries of Charity built a colony for people with leprosy, called Shanti Nagar (“Town of Peace”), near Asansol, India. By the time of her death, in 1997, the order included hundreds of centers in more than 90 countries and was supported by religious sisters and thousands of lay workers and volunteers.

The Missionaries of Charity have been widely celebrated for their compassion and service to the poor. Indeed, Mother Teresa was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016.

The order is not above criticism, however, and a number of complaints and accusations have been lodged. Although the Missionaries of Charity claim to not impose their faith on others, the sisters in India have been accused of emotionally exploiting vulnerable people and covertly baptizing dying Hindus or Muslims in their care. There have also been complaints about poor quality or even dangerous medical care rendered in some of their facilities, sometimes given by people with little or no medical training. Despite the evidence that access to birth control reduces poverty rates, the Missionaries of Charity adhere to Roman Catholic teachings against abortion and contraception.