in every generation it seems an individual comes along who manages to win the respect of the world not through politics or war or even show business but through a simple sense of humanity Dr Albert schwitzer was such a man devoting his life to helping the people of Africa Mother Theresa is also such a person a 69-year-old nun who carries out her humanitarian work in perhaps the worst slums in the world that black hole of poverty and misery the Ates the city of Kolkata a few months ago Mother Theresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a
great honor but as we found she's hardly the type of woman to let it distract her from the work at hand the world is calling you a living Saint how do you feel about that when people call you a s nothing to feel about it because we are all meant to be holy since we have been created for that we have been created as children of God In His Image and so we are what we are in the eyes of God I know what I am before God never but people say it's immaterial whether or
not Mother Teresa is a living Saint to these lucky ones among India's starving Millions she's a godsend these food lines are a good example of her priorities last December after winning the Nobel Peace Prize Mother Theresa refused the traditional banquet for the prize winner she insisted the $7,000 the dinner would have cost the used to feed 400 of India's PO for a year every morning thousands of Indians like these gather at Mother Theresa's 59 centers around Kolkata many of these people have traveled hundreds of miles to get here the reason they go to those lengths
it's really quite simple they'd starve to death if they didn't every year in India is about us do mother you also told me that you thought that it would be harder for poor people say in my country in Australia than it is for the poor people here in Kata I find it much more difficult the poverty of our poor people in Melbourne and in um in New York and London because if I pick up a person dying of hunger uh I give him a plate of rice I fulfill the the need but the people who
are lonely feel full of pain inside unwanted un who have been forgotten by their own children maybe a throwy of society and dying of sheer loneliness I think that's much greater poverty and the plate of rise and the piece of bread and butter is not going to remove and this kind of people we have many Mother Theresa's concern for the wealthy man's poverty comes as a shock when you consider her daily environment it could be said there are really no slums in her city of Kolkata that Kolkata is one gigantic [Music] slum While most large
cities throb with life this place is screaming in pain for kata's millions of Street people living conditions could hardly be worse than they are but according to Mother Theresa there are problems just as bad in places like Australia and I think say for example in in Melbourne we work with the alcoholics this to me is a very great disease very great disease and a disease that needs lots of understanding love and tender real tender love seeing Mother Theresa and her tiny Army at battle with kolkata's Misery the question is why do they bother Kolkata is
indescribably squalen far worse than those pictures we got from school day geography lessons about the black hole so where does a handful of nuns begin in a city of 7 million where it's much easier to count the people without problems there are those who argue that her approach does nothing to eliminate the root causes of India's suffocating hardship that she ignores the basic and obvious problem of overpopulation no because there are the people can do who can do that mine is to pick up that person and help him if he has to die to die
with dignity and if he's hungry just to feed him if he's naked just to clothe him if he's homeless just to give him a home it also doesn't seem to bother you that India is such an overpopulated country no it doesn't because we are taking every possible step to teach our um our lepers or Beggars or slum dwellers natural Family Planning and in Kolkata alone in you mean the Rhythm ISM rism and in Kolkata alone we have had 73,000 less babies born in 6 years it's a big thing so we have H the country what
do you say to those people who criticize your work because you are so much opposed to contraception and abortion nothing say I only say it is a murder you think that would be murder and abortion is a pure murder and you don't think that people being born into those conditions could also be murder the poor people don't do abortions a poor woman will give birth to her child leave the child maybe in the dpin even but she'll give birth to her [Music] child in kolkata's Cesspool existence living is little more than and waiting for death
and even dying peacefully at home isn't possible if you're homeless that's why Mother Theresa turned an old Hindu temple into a home for the destitute to give them somewhere to put their head down and [Music] die the most striking feature of this frail 69-year-old Yugoslav nun is how ordinary she is her good humor and compassion are only matched by her shrewdness as an organizer of both people and rup [Music] peas brother when we were talking earlier you also said that you you wouldn't like our film to be a way of raising funds do you think
that that means that you'd be exploiting these people if you did yes exactly they are not a zoo now there to be sure it is not uh only the only reason I give permission to be done this and I I'm talking to you now it's only because I want to create that knowledge that these people have been created by the same loving hand of God that they are our brothers and sisters and that we receive much more from them than we give to [Music] [Applause] them Mother Theresa says she leaves it to God to balance
the order's books but he does get human help for costly projects like this one in a land short on education and literacy it seems no one wants to know the mentally people who even by India standards are outcasts [Music] for mother her sisters and a Fraternal Order one project inevitably leads to [Music] others their latest is a colony for India's most Untouchables lepers 80,000 of them in Kolkata 3.2 million throughout India [Music] [Music] brother christas runs this leprosy Center a depressing place for a visitor without the brother's Eternal optimism had a case of for example
one patient who have been thrown by their own parents into a garbage heap and she was about about a 19yearold girl and she was gone into thrown into the into the Heap of garbage in a dying condition and we brought to her here and then a spoon feeding service saved her life and uh she showed signs of life and later on she also showed signs of love and they got married and they are settled here and she's working here she's a normal person now Mother Teresa is spending her award money from the Nobel Prize $190,000
to build more hospitals for lepers how does Mother Theresa's loving God allow such widespread misery if you use suffering in the right way uh then it can bring us closer to God it can purify us and sanctifies but God has not created suffering suffering this comes from Evil that is in us we are created same as poverty God has not created poverty because Jesus being rich became poor for love of us but um the poverty is because we are holding the moment we begin to share there will be no poverty Ark of the Covenant the
rainbow are there are some who criticize Mother Teresa's religious interest in death as a morbid preoccupation but not since mahat Mandi has any individual reminded the world so bluntly of the mountainous pileup of poverty on India's Pavements [Music] her original call to the slums Remains the first love for this woman whose order literally picks people out of the gutters her sole aim is to make death in Kolkata a more peaceful experience than living it's a home for the sick and dying destitute so all of these are only picked up from the streets of Kolkata what
kind of people are they mother all kinds of people people that have have no one lost everything are wanted by no one through of society this was the first house that you set up wasn't it yes in 1952 why did you choose the slums of Kolkata as a place to do your work because there are a lot of other places they are the poorest of thech this man will die any moment he'll certainly be there within an hour or so but that's why he was brought here it wasn't just that he had nowhere to live
he had nowhere to die actually the atmosphere in this place is quite intriguing there's none of the stench none of the agony none of the self-pity that we usually associate with inevitable death [Music] he wants to go to noon to the brother's there we'll send him tomorrow let him go there and that one that young boy will take to in 27 years Mother Teresa has seen more than 20,000 destitutes die here they to and go to PR but to her that's not as tragic as it might see they asking it's a very beautiful way that's
the greatest development of a human life naturally we all want to go back to God and to be able to die in peace with God we need a Pure Life and the suffering of these people purifies them and that's why they in such great peace oh it is true some of them are very great suffering but even that man who is nearly in his L I asked him are you feeling very bad he said no I'm feeling much better and he's in the big caner now if he was a rich person in a special hospital
but possible he would be screaming and they would have to give more and this was that wonder what the lesson for us this one how happy do you think it's ever possible for us to have a world where the sort of hardship that you see every day doesn't exist it may come one day then the missionaries of Charity will be unemployed the mission of Charity toils 7 days a week 52 weeks a year with little noticeable impact on the world's most unchanging poverty but on the spot it's hard to ignore the Comfort they bring to
people whose wretched lives are almost Beyond European understanding for the most pathetic of them the homeless and unwanted death at Mother Theresa's house of the dying could be the only moment of peace they know hello I'm dimity Clancy thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on .com. and the ow app
