So she got her promised desserts.  Like the soldiers of any organised crime family, you can rest assured that your loyal service will be rewarded upon your death.  The BBC carries the article and writes, without a hint of irony: “Pope Francis has recognised a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for the Roman Catholic nun to be declared a saint next year.”

Whilst she didn’t administer much in the way of medicine to her own charges, she did, it seems, accept that medicine is what cures disease, rather than even her version of hocus pocus. Indeed, she was no great fan of either, curing wasn’t her thing, packing them up on their way to meet their god was her thing.

So it is strange that this miraculous cure of brain cancer is the foundation of the second miracle that assures her canonisation.   All the BBC can tell us is that “There are few details about the recovery of the Brazilian man, whose life the Vatican says was saved in the second miracle.”.  I concur, I’ve searched high and low but if my reader would like a good laugh amongst tears shed for abuse of the innocent, try this one about John of God but don’t omit reading “The
update” at the end.  If there is to be legislation banning proselytism of terror, could this web site please go on that list?

There is a near bottomless well of texts from the late, great Christopher Hitchens from which to draw, one for almost any purpose, in any context, so long as that context is a challenge to or comment on concepts of logic or reason.  That well contains the most pointed and prosaic quotations but there is one that I believe trumps all: “..extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence..”

In the way of cruel facts, it is a fact that the one person who bothered to tell the real story of the Albanian egotist and fundamentalist fanatic died four years ago, almost on the anniversary of this “saintly event”.  It’s as if the Pope was having a Pop.  In this wonderful reprint of his essay, Christopher tells his thoughts on the news that “Pope Francis will make Mother Teresa — a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud—a saint.”  and if you’d like to see more of how he came to that conclusion I’d suggest you gird your loins and hang on to your stomach before watching his documentary on the woman in whose company despots and criminals loved to be seen and whose ill-gotten gains she was only too happy to take, not to help the poor and suffering but to expand her egoist empire, promulgating her evil voodoo on those same illiterate poor and indeed suffering masses.

As one who has experienced their own personal journey, the subject of miracles in Brazil, I can tell you that the few that are cured owe more to StarWars than to voodoo, Catholic or otherwise.  If there is praise to be offered here, we should worship the Nerd.  Nerds will be our salvation and already often are.  Hail to the Nerd.  Praise him.  Oh, god, I’ve gone and started one myself now haven’t I !  So easy to slip into established patterns even when you think you’re above it all.  Here endeth that particular lesson.

A modern Altar, perhaps?  

A bold logo?                                           Our very own saint, Prof Lars Leksell

hmm…Nerdism…I wonder…..No.

Stop!