Mother Teresa : A "Sainthood" which polarized the popular discourse

It took Mother Teresa little longer to attain Sainthood than to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Or a Bharata Ratna for that matter. And when it eventually happened, it was not without its own share of frictions. As Mother Teresa stormed into the top Twitter trends, the general opinion regarding her sainthood seemed drastically polarized.

Sunday, September 4 saw Mother Teresa's elevation into the Sainthood : a decoration, no less important than that of Hindu Gods and Goddesses for Catholics. In an event widely telecasted around the globe. A catholic saint has a large following and huge influence. Before Pope Francis, Pope John Paul had adorned 1338 people as "Blessed" and 482 as "Saint." In last four hundred years, total number of people declared "Saint" is not even half of this number. Apparently Pope John Paul was pretty generous in extending this honor. This need be noted that "Saint" and "Blessed" are posthumous honor, which used to be extended only to those who died at least than five years ago. Pope John Paul reduced it to two years and for "Saint", only two miracles were needed now instead of four. Mother Teresa had, so to speak, two miracles in her fold and this paved way for her Sainthood.

However, social media reacted to it in a very polarized manner. One section, some dignitaries included, went overboard in congratulating her, calling this a moment of great honor for India too. "Better late than never" has its own hashtag. Her services for the poor and downtrodden were affectionately remembered. An another section accused her of promoting Missionary cult in name of service and claimed that many faces from popular culture too should have been honored for that matter. One of them went on to say that why can't Angelina Jolie be declared a saint then. Some said that she was benefited for being a Christian and some questioned the secular credentials of news media in getting overboard to cover the whole thing.

Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, still could make it to the the top trend list on social media, now many would have believed it till few days ago.