Mother Theresa was one of the world's most prolific child traffickers ever.

Question

mother Theresa, One of the worlds most prolific child traffickers ever

Answer 1

Mother Theresa was not accused, investigated, or implicated in any form of child trafficking. 

The only incident related to her name and child trafficking is the 2018 scandal involving a nun (Sister Koncilia) and an employee (Anima Indwar) at a shelter in Ranchi, that was run by the “Missionaries of Charity” founded by Mother Theresa. Since this happened in 2018, that is 21 years after her death, the actions were also not done by her organization, but the individual acts of 2 people. This can be seen covered by outlets like NPR (https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629681931/late-mother-teresas-order-investigated-for-child-trafficking-in-india) and BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44722755)

Comments

I wish you had explained your sources further. Describing the outcome of the scandal would have also been beneficial.

Answer 2

There is no known evidence of Mother Teresa being involved in child trafficking. The only known issue related to her occurred back in 2018 in the Roman Catholic Order she created, where a nun and a worker were arrested off of baby trafficking accusations. They were accused of selling 4 infants for the equivalent American equivalent of $730. (NPR)

Two other employees were later detained and questioned about two other possible cases of trafficking. (BBC)

So while, yes, there are links of baby trafficking to a shelter that Mother Teresa created, this event took place roughly 20 years after her death.

In fact, the Human Trafficking Institute wrote an article describing Mother Teresa's "kindness and generosity" she displayed in her actions over the years. (Human Trafficking Institute)

Comments

I like how straight to the point your answer is, and including the Human Trafficking Institute's article was a great point. I wish you had included names and described your sources a little further.

Answer 3

This is a false claim. There is simply no evidence throughout history to suggest that Mother Theresa herself has had any involvement in child trafficking. Because you didn't include an article or source of your claim, I can't cross-reference the information. Mother Theresa established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, and it was involved in a child trafficking scandal in 2018. In India, "A woman working at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has been arrested for allegedly selling a 14-day-old baby"  (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44722755). The staff member, Anima Indwar, "confessed to selling the children" and was arrested along with a nun who worked at the center (https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629681931/late-mother-teresas-order-investigated-for-child-trafficking-in-india). Both BBC and NPR are highly trusted news sources. Despite the fact that the incidents occurred at Mother Thereresa's Missionaries of Charity, "Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, the secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI)...[claims that] the Missionaries of Charity congregation is 'absolutely not involved in this'" (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2018-07/india-mother-teresa-selling-baby-trafficking-prema-mascarenhas.html). Along with this, Mother Theresa died 21 years prior to the scandal, meaning she couldn't have been involved personally in any way. 

Answer 4

This claim, made in a post on Bluesky without pointing towards a source, is a false conspiracy theory that has been disproven by respected fact-checking organizations. https://www.reuters.com/article/fact-check/unfounded-claims-that-mother-teresa-trafficked-children-circulate-online-idUSL1N34X22T/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/feb/15/instagram-posts/mother-teresa-did-not-sell-babies-social-media-pos/#sources

This claim is likely connected to a story from 2018 from India in which a nun and another worker were arrested for selling a 14-day-old baby at a shelter for unwed mothers, run by Mother Teresa's order, the Missionaries of Charity. https://apnews.com/general-news-a2789bb844e8449b8115ae746d013ea7 https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629681931/late-mother-teresas-order-investigated-for-child-trafficking-in-india 

After a careful inspection of these reports, there's no reason to believe that these workers were anything other than lone bad actors. There's little to connect Mother Teresa to this event, as it happened decades after she died in 1997. Additionally, according to news reports, the Missionaries of Charity had stopped doing adoptions in India since 2015, further solidifying that the two workers were acting on their own, rather than being part of a larger systemic issue.

Answer 5

Mother Teresa died in 1997 and was recognized by the Vatican as a saint in 2016. Some recent headlines have claimed that Mother Theresa could be one of the world's most prolific child traffickers ever but this claim is ridiculous and false. According to NPR the whole reasoning for this theory is that “Earlier this month, Indian authorities shut down a shelter home for pregnant, unmarried women run by the order in Ranchi, a city in the eastern state of Jharkhand, after discovering that four infants had been sold, including a 6-month-old boy who changed hands for 50,000 rupees ($730).” The current year is 2025 last time I checked and mother Teresa died in 1997 so it is far stretched to say that she was a child trafficker when in reality she is a saint. Trying to put the wrong of someone of current day on someone who passed in 1997 is just wrong. 

It is true that A woman working at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has been arrested for allegedly selling a 14-day-old baby. The claim that Mother Theresa, One of the world's most prolific child traffickers ever is sickening and false.

Answer 6

This claim is false, as Mother Teresa has never been a child trafficker. In this claim by BlueSky User @redskyyes.bsky.social claims Mother Teresa as the most prolific child trafficker to exist. There is no concrete evidence of Mother Teresa being a child trafficker or engaging in such activity. The user does not cite any resources or give any context as to where the user got the information from. They were replying to a previous post quoting a poem by Mother Teresa and a picture of a flower. 

Researching further, there are a few cases of human trafficking that are connected via a charity home she founded in the state of Jharkhand, India. This home housed unmarried pregnant women and was founded in the 1950s. In 2018, a women had been arrested for allegedly selling a 14 day old baby (bbc).  This event occurred without any action from Mother Teresa, as she died in 1997. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44722755

Answer 7

This claim is not true. Mother Teresa is not one of the most prolific child traffickers ever. The only piece of information that I could find connecting Mother Teresa to child trafficking is the shutdown of a shelter home where a six-month-old boy and four infants had been sold. According to NPR, India had ordered its state government to inspect child care facilities run by the Roman Catholic order that was founded by Mother Teresa. They shut down a shelter home for pregnant, unmarried women after finding that four infants, along with a six-month-old boy, had been sold for around $730 (USD). “We have found out that some other babies have also been illegally sold from the center,” a police officer told the BBC. A nun named Sister Koncilia and a staff member named Anima Indwar were arrested in connection with trafficking. Indwar apparently confessed to selling the children, according to The Times of India. This incident of child trafficking happened 20 years after Mother Teresa’s death, indicating that this claim is false.

NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629681931/late-mother-teresas-order-investigated-for-child-trafficking-in-india

BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44722755

The Times of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/fourth-baby-sold-by-nirmal-hriday-found/articleshow/65002928.cms

Answer 8

To begin, this claim is verifiably false. Mother Teresa was never involved in, investigated for, or accused of child trafficking. As best I can tell, this user was extrapolating this accusation from an article posted just months before the post was made on bluesky. This article discusses an order from the federal government to state governments that calls for them to investigate nurseries affiliated with The Missionaries of Charity. The Missionaries of Charity is an organization founded by Mother Teresa, but is now led by Sister Mary Joseph the third successor of St. Teresa. This order came after it was uncovered that two of the staff members at a Missionaries of Charity facility were linked to a shelter for pregnant women that was selling babies. It doesn't seem reasonable that the Missionaries of Charity have to be investigated for a scandal that doesn't even involve one of their facilities. In fact, The Missionaries for Charity stopped their adoption program in 2015 citing disagreements with the governments lenient adoption policy.