American author, Kitty Kelley, is regarded as either a first-rate
biographer or a peddler of cheap gossip.
There was the furore surrounding Kelley’s first major work, the story
of Frank Sinatra – his good Catholic mother’s alleged work as
an arranger of abortions, his supposed work for shady underworld figures,
and claims of physical violence perpetrated against innocent people.
The outcry over the supposed details of Cranky Frankie’s life paled
beside Kelley’s next book – the story of Nancy Reagan which included
suggestions of an affair between Nancy and Ol’ Blue Eyes himself.
More recently Catty Kitty – as some in the publishing world call her
behind her back – has had the Royal Family in her sights with claims
that the Queen and Princess Margaret were test-tube babies, the Queen Mum
was a bastard and the Duke of Edinburgh should have the initials MPM added
to his list of qualifications (Mad Pants Man).
But all of these controversial claims are nothing compared with the storm
that will erupt when Kelley’s new book comes off the presses.
.In May 1991 The Bug published a world exclusive report by its literary
editor, Wayne Kerr, about Kelley’s planned biography on Mother Theresa.
The 1991 report outlined the contents of the book, which some publishing
and religious leaders at the time referred to as a “hatchet job on
a tireless toiler for the poor”.
Now, in another world exclusive, The Bug prints extracts from Kelley’s
book.
The Bug believes the book will appear next year under the title Mother
Theresa – Living Sinner.
Although the name was decided before Mother Theresa’s recent death,
Kelley is insisting it stays.
Her new book details the complex web of multinational corporations behind
the Mother Theresa image – the most notorious being Living Saint International,
based in the Cayman Islands tax haven, and Mother T Incorporated, which
has operations in 86 countries.
Already critics are asking: Just how much dirt is there to dig up on Mother
Theresa?
The following extract proves Kelley thinks she’s found a pile, including
the most bizarre allegation of all – there was not one Mother Theresa,
but five.
Mother Theresa died in 1978. Her recent “death” merely marked
the passing of the fourth and final imitator lined up by the Catholic Church
to play the role of the “Saint of the Gutters”.
When the real Mother died the Catholic Church was worried. Through her work
in the slums of Calcutta, Mother Theresa had provided the church with immeasurable
positive publicity around the world.
The Vatican Bank held data showing the saintly image of Mother Theresa was
responsible for the generation of hundreds of millions of dollars in donations
to the church.
Put bluntly, the Vatican Bank viewed Mother Theresa as a goldmine –
as big as, if not bigger, than a major rock or movies star.
Now she was dead and the goldmine was to close. Or was it?
While news of Mother Theresa’s death was hushed up – even from
the Pope himself – a proposal was drawn up by the Vatican Bank
.It called for a lookalike to take the place of the dead Mother and continue
her world travel and fundraising.
A highly confidential worldwide search was undertaken and in the end four
lookalikes were found.
But the plan needed the Pope’s approval, if not his blessing. The plan
suffered a major setback when it was presented to the then Pope Paul VI.
The Holy Father read the briefing note and promptly dropped dead from shock.
Even the new Pope John Paul disputed the fact he had given his approval.
When shown the letter of authority he claimed he had been tricked into signing
it as routine paperwork. John Paul became agitated and threatened to blow
lid off the scheme publicly.
The handful of senior figures within the Vatican who knew of the plan decided
John Paul was serious in threatening to expose their ruse and decided he
must be killed
When Pope John Paul II was elected he was told nothing of the scheme and
to this day never knew the woman he greeted regularly on her visits to Rome
or in Calcutta was not the real Mother Theresa.
Apart from the real Mother’s death in 1978, the other “Mothers”
died in June 1984, May 1989, December 1992 and of course September 1997.
As the church hierarchy grew more comfortable with the look-alike scheme,
greater risk would be take, such as sending out a number of Mother Theresa
at once to maximise fundraising and publicity.
In almost 20 years the scheme had only one hiccup.
In August 1982 “Mother Theresa” was taping an appearance on the
Johnny Carson Tonight Show in Los Angeles while at the same time she was
appearing at a special mass in Dijon, France.
Through sheer luck nobody uncovered the slip-up.
