Editor’s Note: The postulator for St. Teresa of Calcutta issued a statement raising concerns about this film. Read his statement at the end of this article.

A new movie weaves together the lives of two women experiencing self-doubt, but, in the end, both women meet the challenge of their vocations despite their personal struggles. 

Mother Teresa and Me tells the story of Kavita, a young woman who finds herself with an unexpected pregnancy. Battling whether or not to get an abortion, she returns to her hometown in India where her now very old nanny shares the story of Mother Teresa’s first days working in the streets of Calcutta. Learning how Mother Teresa faced many doubts after no longer being able to hear the voice of Jesus, Kavita is inspired. 

The film premieres at a special event in New York on Sept. 5 on the International Day of Charity, which was established by the United Nations to commemorate the anniversary of the passing of St. Teresa of Calcutta. On Oct. 5, the movie will be released in 800 theaters across the U.S.

Thierry Cagianut, the executive producer of the film, spoke with CNA about the movie and what he hopes people will take away from it. 

“‘Mother Teresa and Me’ is an attempt to inspire people around the world to follow the example of Mother Teresa and through small acts of kindness make a better world,” he said.

He explained that the filmmakers decided to take on the difficult endeavor of showing the time in Mother Teresa’s life when she experienced darkness and a spiritual crisis similar to what saints like John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila experienced.

By portraying this side of the popular saint, the filmmakers hoped to make her more “relatable.”

“When you see the struggle she was in and how she persevered then suddenly she becomes much more human, because she’s also a woman with a lot of suffering and that makes her relatable,” Cagianut explained.

In an effort to accomplish this, they introduced the story of Kavita because “we thought it might be more accessible, more interesting, to discover Mother Teresa through the eyes of a young mother and woman living today.”

Kavita is not only dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and being left abandoned by the baby’s father, but she is also battling her parents who want her to get married according to Indian tradition.

As the movie goes on, “the influence of Mother Teresa changes her life.”

In the same way Kavita is left forever changed by Mother Teresa, Cagianut hopes the audience will have the same experience.

“We hope that people seeing the movie might get affected by Mother Teresa and discover that they should also do little acts of kindness and be more compassionate and have more open eyes and be less about themselves,” he said.

Cagianut called Mother Teresa “an extremely strong character who we can only emulate and can only give us courage in our own travail in everyday life.”

As they began to make the movie, those involved thought it should be made “in the spirit of Mother Teresa” and that the proceeds from the film should go back in their entirety to the poor. Therefore, the Zariya Foundation (Zariya means “source” in Urdu) was created to accomplish this mission.

The Zariya Foundation aims to alleviate the suffering of the poor, abandoned, sick, and dying and uplift the standards of health and education for the youth around the world, according to its website. The foundation was founded by Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, the actress who plays Mother Teresa in the film, and her husband, Richard.

The film was entirely financed by donations, allowing all proceeds to be distributed to the poor instead of having to repay outstanding costs with the money generated by ticket sales. 

“From the first dollar — basically the money that comes in from ticket sales can go to the poor,” Cagianut said.

He explained the name Zariya was chosen because Mother Teresa herself was a source “of great love and compassion and the film will be a source, a well that will not go dry, where we will be able to alleviate poverty through people watching it.”

Cagianut hopes the movie reaches the “Kavitas of the world” and that they will be “moved” after watching the film, adding that they made the movie hoping that people will realize “you don’t need to start a foundation and give tons of money — most of the time little gestures, a little bit of time, attention that you give to someone … that makes a better world.”

Response of the Postulator of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, on the movie Mother Teresa and Me.

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A new film on Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa and Me, is garnering coverage in the Catholic press. I would like to make some comments on how Mother Teresa is portrayed in the film and clear up some misconceptions about what she called her “darkness.”

On the website of the film, writer/director Kamal Musale, states:

Most people know the myth of Mother Teresa but few had an idea of who was the real Teresa, and that includes many who were closely associated with her. A handful of confessors knew that she had lost her faith, but that fact is still largely unknown today. Through extensive research, I have been able to develop a character more true to life, of a woman who lost her lover, her husband, her intimate soul mate, and never recovered from it. She is that way very human, and through this experience of abandonment, she experiences some of the emotions that most of us can identify with. … During [an] approximately 12-year period, Teresa goes through a complete change, from the intensity of her epiphany to the disillusionment and the realization that her connection with God is lost.

There are several crucial errors in these statements which require correction. Unfortunately, the producers of the film appear unaware of Mother Teresa’s own interpretation of her darkness, or the significance it had for her life and vocation. As her own writings attest, one of the most profound things about Mother Teresa is that she never “lost her faith,” even amid desolation and uncertainty. Her personal letters speak of her “unbroken union [with God]” during her darkness and observe that “my mind and heart is habitually with God.” She describes the “doubt” in which she lived “for the rest of her life” as instead a trial of faith--an experience well-known in the Catholic mystical tradition. 

As the postulator for the cause of Mother Teresa’s beatification and canonization, I was responsible for the publication of Mother Teresa’s personal correspondence that revealed her darkness to the world. At the time she wrote them, Mother Teresa expected these letters to be destroyed. However, I, along with several people in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, understood that, contrary to showing a loss of faith, these writings illustrated the depth of that faith, and her confidence that Christ would not abandon her. She even states that, “I will hear His voice”, and “I know this is only feelings – for my will is steadfast bound to Jesus.”

In addition to the film’s portrayal of her darkness, I am also concerned about the film’s portrayal of Mother Teresa’s character. I don’t believe those who knew Mother personally or spent the most time with her would recognize her on-screen depiction. “A frustrated and loss-driven middle-aged woman” is a far cry from our experiences of a loving, radiant, joy-filled saint. It is also far from the legacy that Mother Teresa herself aspired to, which was to be an “apostle of joy”, and to offer “a hearty ‘yes’ to God and a smile for all.”

The stated pro-life message of the film is also ambiguous. The character of Kavita, a young woman who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, struggles with the idea of abortion. At the end the film, Kavita says that she’ll be alright, but what that means is open-ended. The audience is left to wonder whether she will keep her unborn child or not. Mother Teresa, however, would be unambiguous. “And if you do not want the child, give it to me. I want it.” 

It would take an extraordinary actress to fittingly portray Mother Teresa. Unlike earlier saints, one of the challenges faced by artists today is that many people alive still remember her, and so fictionalized depictions of Mother Teresa can evoke strong emotional responses. Based on my own close relationship with Mother Teresa, my role as her postulator, and my familiarity with the experiences of those who testified during her canonization process, this film does not accurately capture the woman who captured the world with her steadfast, joyful love of God and neighbor; one of the most loved and admired women of the 20th century. We still must wait for a non-documentary film that adequately portrays the “real and relatable” Saint Mother Teresa, since a misrepresentation is unjust to her and to those who wish to know her in all her beauty and fullness.