Strong reactions for and against the film Mother Teresa and Me

When Mother Teresa and Me opens in theaters as a Fathom event for one day, on Thursday, October 5, it won’t be without controversy.

Part documentary and part drama, the film tells the story of Mother Teresa and a fictional British-Indian woman named Kavita. Kavita had become pregnant and, as often happens, her boyfriend refused to help and instead insisted that she have an abortion. Devastated by the abandonment, Kavita journeyed to Calcutta to escape her pain—and there, working as a volunteer at the Missionaries of Charity’s House of the Dying, Kavita realized that she was not alone in her struggle to face life’s challenges. Mother Teresa, too, had been discouraged, and had sunk into what she called her “dark night of the soul.” Inspired by the saint’s perseverance and compassionate love, Kavita begins to turn her focus away from her own problems and to instead help other people.

Already, Mother Teresa and Me has received acclaim around the world—for example, claiming the Best Film Award at the Mirabile Didictu (Wonderful to Relate) International Catholic Film Festival in Rome. In early September, the film was screened at a special event in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Thierry Cagianut, the film’s executive producer, hoped that his film would inspire people here in the United States to become active, to perform little acts of kindness, thus contributing to a better world.

Criticism from the postulator of Mother Teresa’s cause

But there is disagreement among early viewers regarding the film. The sharpest criticism to date comes from the postulator for the cause of beatification and canonization for Mother Teresa, Missionaries of Charity priest Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk. As postulator, Fr. Kolodiejchuk was responsible for the publication of Mother Teresa’s personal correspondence that revealed her “darkness” to the world. Although Mother Teresa had expected her personal writings to be destroyed, Fr. Kolodiejchuk and others at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints believed that her heartfelt letters illustrated the depth of her faith, and her confidence that Christ would not abandon her.

In contrast, Mother Teresa and Me portrays the saint as desolate and having lost her faith in God. Writer/director Kamal Musale makes this claim on the film’s website:

…A handful of confessors knew that she had lost her faith, but that fact is still largely unknown today. Through extensive research, I have been able to develop a character more true to life, of a woman who lost her lover, her husband, her intimate soul mate, and never recovered from it. She is that way very human, and through this experience of abandonment, she experiences some of the emotions that most of us can identify with. … During [an] approximately 12-year period, Teresa goes through a complete change, from the intensity of her epiphany to the disillusionment and the realization that her connection with God is lost.

Father Kolodiejchuk insists that this is wrong, that the producers of the film appear unaware of Mother Teresa’s own interpretation of her darkness, or the significance that it had for her life and vocation. “As her own writings attest,” Fr. Kolodiejchuk says:

…one of the most profound things about Mother Teresa is that she never ‘lost her faith,’ even amid desolation and uncertainty. Her personal letters speak of her ‘unbroken union [with God] during her darkness and observe that ‘my mind and heart is habitually with God.’ She describes the ‘doubt’ in which she lived ‘for the rest of her life’ as a trial of faith—an experience well-known in the Catholic mystical tradition.

In addition to the film’s portrayal of her darkness, Fr. Kolodiejchuk was also concerned about the portrayal of Mother Teresa’s character. He believed that those who knew Mother Teresa personally or spent time with her would not recognize her on-screen depiction. “A frustrated and loss-driven middle-aged woman”—the characterization in this film—was, in Fr. Kolodiejchuk’s estimation, a far cry from their experiences of a loving, radiant, joy-filled saint. It is also, he believed, far from the legacy that Mother Teresa herself aspired to, which was to be an “apostle of joy”, and to offer “a hearty ‘yes’ to God and a smile for all.”

Fr. Kolodiejchuk was concerned that Mother Teresa and Me fell short in its aim as a “pro-life film,” because the viewer was left wondering whether Kavita, who had struggled with the idea of abortion, had carried her pregnancy to term and had kept her unborn child. At the end of the film, Kavita says that she’ll be all right; but what that means is open-ended. Mother Teresa, the priest believed, would have been unambiguous in her love for the child, and would have said, “If you do not want the child, give it to me. I want it.”

He concludes his statement:

It would take an extraordinary actress to fittingly portray Mother Teresa. Unlike earlier saints, one of the challenges faced by artists today is that many people alive still remember her, and so fictionalized depictions of Mother Teresa can evoke strong emotional responses. Based on my own close relationship with Mother Teresa, my role as her postulator, and my familiarity with the experiences of those who testified during her canonization process, this film does not accurately capture the woman who captured the world with her steadfast, joyful love of God and neighbor; one of the most loved and admired women of the 20th century. We still must wait for a non-documentary film that adequately portrays the “real and relatable” Saint Mother Teresa, since a misrepresentation is unjust to her and to those who wish to know her in all her beauty and fullness.

Praise from other Catholic leaders

Father Kolodiejchuk’s criticisms stand in contrast to praise for the film by other Catholic leaders.

Fr. Robert Sirico, president emeritus of the Acton Institute, said, “I am impressed. It was well-written, acted and produced.” Derry Connolly, president of the John Paul the Great Catholic University, called it “One of the best saint movies I’ve seen in a long time. Engaging on many levels. The acting, the script, the production, and the music were all superb.”

And pastor, author and news commentator Rev. Gerald E. Murray called Mother Teresa and Me “a beautiful film about what it means to be a human being who seeks love, finds love and shares love.”

Greg Schleppenbach, executive director at The Culture Project International, called the film “An intensely intimate glimpse into the heart and soul of Mother Teresa and the impact one faithful life can have in the world.”

Finally, James Stella, director of the Mother Teresa Project at Ave Maria University, wrote, “Mother Teresa and Me is a stirring film that reminds us that each and every human being is a blessing from God.”

Learn more about Mother Teresa and Me on the film’s website.