Clay Waters of Times Watch alerted me to a new item in the Shameless Hillary Department: Ben Smith at Politico.com reports Mother Teresa's missionaries have protested Hillary's use of a photograph of her waving next to Mother Teresa in a Hillary campaign video, in which the announcer said: "Hillary in effect, was the face of America, in Africa, in India..." The picture was used as the words "in India" were narrated. Will the rest of the media follow up on this story?
The head of a politically conservative Catholic group, Fidelis, said he brought the video to the attention of Sister Nirmala, Teresa's successor at the Superior General of the India-based Missionaries of Charity. Fidelis president Joseph Cella called it "wholly inappropriate, disrespectful and disturbing that Hillary Clinton shamelessly exploited Mother’s image as a political tool."
...Cella said that in his letter to Nirmala, "We pointed out that the use of Blessed Teresa’s image was particularly inappropriate and disturbing given Sen. Clinton’s staunch support of abortion both here in the United States and abroad. Mother Teresa tirelessly fought to protect unborn children, while Hillary Clinton staunchly supports abortion on demand in all nine months of pregnancy, including partial birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion."
Clinton's spokesman, Singer, stressed that the photo was removed at the behest of the missionary order, not of any other group.
Cella added this interesting detail showing how Hillary's views were completely opposite Mother Teresa's on abortion:
The photo in the original ad was immediately followed by a clip of Hillary speaking before the International Conference on Women in Beijing in which she declares, “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.”
Mother Teresa by contrast, abhorred the international abortion policies of the UN, and sent a letter to the same 1995 Beijing Conference in which she wrote, “That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women…Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion …. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of "freedom" can take the place of love.”
The March 1994 MediaWatch reported that another joint appearance of Hillary and Mother Teresa was not well-covered. They were both at the National Prayer Breakfast, and Mother Teresa denounced abortion to Hillary's face. The networks were not impressed:
Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, strongly criticized abortion and its supporters at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 3. Mother Teresa delivered her condemnation before an audience which included President Clinton, Vice President Gore and congressional Democrats. She explained: "I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion because Jesus said, `If you receive a little child, you receive me.' So every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus."
Such a strong rebuke in the President's presence by the world's best-known missionary would, with the presence of conflict and a compelling picture, qualify as great TV. But while The Washington Post and The New York Times covered it, the networks did not.
