[The following message is being sent by Mother Teresa
of Calcutta to the UN Women's Conference in Beijing:]
Dear Friends,
I am praying for God's blessing on all who are taking part in the Fourth
World Conference on Women in Beijing. I hope that this Conference will
help everyone to know, love, and respect the special place of women in
God's plan so that they may fulfill this plan in their lives.
I do not understand why some people are saying that women and men are
exactly the same, and are denying the beautiful differences between men
and women. All God's gifts are good, but they are not all the same. As
I often say to people who tell me that they would like to serve the poor
as I do, "What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot. But together
we can do something beautiful for God." It is just this way with the differences
between women and men.
God has created each one of us, every human being, for greater things--
to love and to be loved. But why did God make some of us men and others
women? Because a woman's love is one image of the love of God, and a man's
love is another image of God's love. Both are created to love, but each
in a different way. Woman and man complete each other, and together show
forth God's love more fully than either can do it alone.
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. How
grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy
to the whole world, women and men alike! Yet we can destroy this gift of
motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion, but also be thinking that
other things like jobs or positions are
more important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job,
no plans, no possessions, no idea of "freedom" can take the place of love.
So anything that destroys God's gift of motherhood destroys His most precious
gift to women-- the ability to love as a woman.
God told us, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So first I am to love
myself rightly, and then to love my neighbor like that. But how can I love
myself unless I accept myself as God has made me? Those who deny the beautiful
differences between men and women are not accepting themselves as God has
made them, and so cannot love the neighbor. They will only bring division,
unhappiness, and destruction of peace to the world. For example, as I have
often said, abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace in the world today,
and those who want to make women and men the same are all in favor of abortion.
Instead of death and sorrow, let us bring peace and joy to the world
To do this we must beg God for His gift of peace and learn to love and
accept each other as brothers and sisters, children of God. We know that
the best place for children to learn how to love and to pray is in the
family, by seeing the love and prayer of their mother and father. When
families are broken or disunited, many children grow up not knowing how
to love and pray. A country where many families have been destroyed like
this will have many problems. I have often seen, especially in the rich
countries, how children turn to drugs or other things to escape feeling
unloved and rejected.
But when families are strong and united, children can see God's special
love in the love of their father and mother and can grow to make their
country a loving and prayerful place. The child is God's best gift to the
family and needs both mother and father because each one shows God's love
in a special way. The family that prays together stays together, and if
they stay together they will love one another as God has loved each one
of them. And works of love are always works of peace.
So let us keep the joy of loving in our hearts and share this joy with
all we meet. My prayer for all of the delegates, and for every woman whom
the Beijing Conference is trying to help, is that each one may be humble
and pure like Mary so as to live in love and peace with one another and
make our families and our world something beautiful for God.
Let us pray.
All for the glory of God and good of souls.
God bless you.
Mother Teresa, MC