Princess Diana of England and Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I see, on the news, and on the blogosphere, that Princes Di is still dead. Her current condition has persisted for ten years, with no signs of relief in sight.

Princess Diana of England has been called a "wonderful humanitarian," England's "greatest national treasure, your English Rose." She campaigned against AIDS and social injustice, and, in an under-reported aspect of her apparently supernal life, was an advocate of multiculturalism ("'We saw how multicultural the crowd was. It looked like a different England. It was the Diana touch')."

Even though the 'people's princess' is gone, her memory lives:

• "Just for Girls"
• "The Life of Wylie / Diana: Death Of A Princess"
• "English Thymes / Princess Diana"
• "Princess of Patience / Royal Watcher"

I can understand the response that Princess Di still elicits: she was good-looking, wore her clothes well, publicly supported many high-profile humanitarian causes, had a romantically troubled life, and died in a gymkhana that ended in a spectacular crash.

A Macedonian nun is getting some attention, too, chiefly for her "crisis of faith," as the less breathless journalists called it. Some of the more colorful headlines:

• "Was Mother Teresa an atheist?"
• "Mother Teresa: In Heaven or Hell?"
• "Mother Teresa's Struggle With Faith Revealed"
  (With Slideshows! "Public Figures With Religious Pride," "Divine Signs: Holy, Hoax, Or Just Hope?," and "Religious Sightings: Divine Or Delusional?")

Mother Teresa of Calcutta's letters, some of them, at least, have been made public. She asked that they be destroyed after her death, but the Catholic Church decided that they should be preserved.

And a good thing, too, although I empathize with her stated preference. More about that later.

Some bloggers seem to understand what Mother Teresa's letters mean:

• "The Evolution of Jeremiah / Mother Tereasa's Crisis of Faith"
• "123 Indian Online / Mother Theresa - Faith Crisis?"

So, what's this "crisis of faith" about?

The letters of Mother Teresa show that, for something like fifty years, she felt "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness" and "torture" in her relationship with God. Sounds serious.

To a literate Catholic, it is also a very familiar part of many people's lives, including - and especially - many saints. "The Dark Night," by St. John of the Cross, described, discussed, and named, this part of God's training program.

"Souls begin to enter this dark night when God, gradually drawing them out of the state of beginners (those who practice meditation on the spiritual road), begins to place them in the state of proficients (those who are already contemplatives)...." (From "The Dark Night," St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, revised edition (1991).)

Learning that Mother Teresa of Calcutta went through a dark night of the soul that stands out from two thousand years of saintly experience isn't a disappointment to me. It's an indication that her 'fast track' to canonization is justified.

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