An Interview with Mother Teresa
By Mary Graham
Well, one day in June, 1984, we received a telephone call from a dear friend, Monsignor William Curlin. He had great news for us, he said. Mother Teresa of
Now the condition called AIDS was rather a new (and I’ll have to say scary) disease or medical condition. People who contracted this disease almost always wasted away and died not long after they became ill with AIDS. There was very little treatment and no cure.
It was good news that Mother and her Missionaries of Charity were going to take on this challenge. They had great courage to try to give these poor people some dignity as they were dying. Mostly, AIDS carriers were like the lepers of Jesus’ time; no one wanted to be around them. Any one who entered their rooms in hospitals had to wear masks and gloves and even sometimes a body covering.
But there was more good news, Monsignor said. He wanted your Granddad and me to go down to the Missionaries of Charity Motherhouse near St. Teresa of
This was exciting. If Mother Teresa was going to provide a shelter for these patients, there must be hope for them. Forget scary. She was going to bring the face of Jesus to them, I firmly believed. My job was to ask questions that would allow her to tell the seminarians that they, too, must wear the face of Jesus in working with AIDS victims.
The day of our meeting came. We met Monsignor and his cameraman outside the parish church. We all went to the door of the convent and a small Sister ushered us into a very plain room. I don’t remember much about the look of it; there seemed to be a lot of wood; the furnishings were not luxurious. Simple. Plain. The camera and lights were set up. I had written a list of questions and read them to Monsignor. He thought they were fine.
Then Mother Teresa came into the room … quietly. She was wearing her white habit banded in blue and her feet were bare in her sandals. She greeted us all, walked to a chair and sat down. Her face was very solemn but peaceful. I began to ask the questions. She answered them all, talking about why the Order was founded … to serve the poorest of the poor; She explained that the people with AIDS were the poorest of the poor in our culture here.
The interview lasted about half an hour. All the questions were answered in a soft voice, a voice of love, with reasons based on the Gospel.
I had one last question…….
Earlier in the week, when I told a friend that I was going to interview Mother Teresa about her work with AIDS, the friend said she didn’t see how Mother could work with those people. She said they earned their pain because they were all sinners and didn’t deserve any care that the Sisters would bring.
I mentioned what my friend had said to Mother and then I asked her, “How would you reply to persons who think that way?” Mother drew her small self up until she seemed to fill the room, and shouted out at the top of her voice, “WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE?” She continued, “All of us are sinners! All of us depend on the love and mercy of God to make our lives livable! If God treated us the way we ought to be treated because of our sins, we would all be in agony! I have no patience with those people. Mercy, forgiveness, and love. That’s what we are given by God and what we all need to offer.” There was fire in her voice, and strength to mow down every obstacle. Now I may not have quoted her exact words, but they are pretty close.
That was the end of the interview. Mother smiled, thanked Monsignor, the cameraman and me for allowing her to speak. She thanked your Granddad for coming. We posed for a few pictures.
I never saw the video, but Monsignor Curlin said it was very good.
It was certainly a memorable day for me.
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