Bill Clinton (“I never had sex with that woman”) and Hillary (of the “vast right wing conspiracy”) regularly tell whoppers and nose-stretchers, but Hillary’s latest – let us be charitable here, “economy of truth” - is particularly odious because of the setting and because it involves a saint-in-the-making, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. 

            Last month (on February 4, 2010 to be precise) Secretary of State Clinton gave the keynote address at the 58^th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.  To a blue ribbon crowd, including President Obama and his wife, Hillary made repeated references to the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children in Washington, which she claimed to have founded in 1995 in response to a direct personal appeal from Mother Teresa.  

            In her talk, Ms. Clinton described how Mother Teresa had flown from Calcutta to attend the opening, of their “common ground” on adoption as an alternative to abortion, and of how the diminutive nun had clutched her arm in gratitude.  Hillary quoted Scripture:  “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up”. 

            Hillary Clinton often makes reference to her role in creating the Mother Teresa Home; it’s in her autobiography and it frequently pops up in her speeches, particularly to religious gatherings or groups that might have pro-life sympathies.  According to the official text of her Prayer Breakfast speech, she said:  “She [Mother Teresa} asked me – or more properly, she directed me – to work with her to create a home for such babies here in Washington. …That day I felt I had been ordered, and that the message was coming not just through this diminutive woman but from someplace far beyond.”  Hillary concluded her address with these stirring words:  “So let us do all the good we can, by all means we can, in all the ways we can, to all the people we can, as long as ever we can.  God bless you. [Applause]”

            Now here’s the inconvenient truth.  The Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children does not exist.  It has not existed since 2002, when it closed for lack of funds.

            The real story is that in 1994 Mother Teresa spoke at the National Prayer breakfast.  Among other things, she said:  “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.”  At this point, the crowd rose in applause, but the Clintons, who were there, conspicuously did not join in.

            After the talk, Mother Teresa sought out Hillary Clinton and told her, bluntly, that her views on abortion were wrong.  Mother Teresa said:  “Please don’t kill the child.  Give me the child.  I’m willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.”

            According to Hillary’s account, this was the “common ground” that enabled the two women to form their alliance. 

            Now, to Hillary’s credit, she did work to get the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children up and running.  It did open, as she said, in 1995 and Mother Teresa was there.  But is it conceivable that Hillary Clinton did not know that the Home closed nearly a decade ago?  Is it possible that in the last eight years she never once inquired about how things were going?  Or was she attempting to mislead the Prayer Breakfast attendees, including her boss, President Obama?

            Paul Kengor is a Professor of Political Science at Grove City College.  He had heard Hillary’s story before; he included it in his 2007 book God and Hillary Clinton (Harper Collins).  But Professor Kengor discovered what Hillary did not, namely that the Home closed in 2002.

Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997 at the age of 87.  Hillary Clinton is the American Secretary of State, a once and perhaps future candidate for President.  Each woman is, to use the cant phrase, a “role model” for our confused time.

            Mother Teresa’s life exemplified her submission to the discipline of prayer, the sacrament of the Eucharist, and service to the poorest of the poor. Most of her days on earth were spent among the dying and destitute, and she saw in every face she encountered the face of Jesus - sometimes, she conceded, “in distressing disguise". 

            Hillary Clinton has lived her life at the epicenter of American power and prestige.

            Two women.  How will each be remembered, I wonder?

Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at Western University.