TO LOVE AND BE LOVED

This is the first inside account of Mother Teresa's final years, as told by her lawyer and trusted advisor. The book outlines the lessons she taught him about life, death, and finding purpose.

Mother Teresa believed the greatest need of a human being is to love and be loved. In 1948, she founded the Missionaries of Charity to work directly with the very poorest of Calcutta. From the efforts of one woman, the Missionaries of Charity grew into an organization operating soup kitchens, health clinics, hospices, and shelters in 139 countries, at no cost to any government or to those served. Mother Teresa became one of the most admired women of the 20th century, and her memory continues to inspire charitable work across the globe. In 2016, she became Saint Teresa of Calcutta. More than 300,000 people attended her canonization mass in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. An American, Jim Towey, was chosen by the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity to do the Bible reading at the mass.

In the mid-1980s, Towey had been a high-flying Congressional staffer and lawyer. But despite all the outward trappings of success, he felt dead inside and a brief meeting with Mother Teresa illuminated the emptiness of his life. He began volunteering at her D.C. soup kitchen and using his legal skills and political connections to help the Missionaries of Charity. When Mother Teresa asked him to begin helping at her AIDS hospice, he realized he was all in. Soon, he had given up his job and possessions, and became a full-time volunteer for Mother Teresa. He travelled with her frequently, arranged her meetings with politicians and donors, and handled many of her personal affairs. TO LOVE AND BE LOVED is his account of these years and the first book to detail her dealings with worldly matters. We see her gracefully navigate the opportunities and challenges of leadership, the perils of celebrity, and the humiliations and triumphs of aging. TO LOVE AND BE LOVED documents the grit and goodness of a woman who became a saint through her humanity, not in spite of it.

The author's description of Mother Teresa's last years provides lessons on how to manage the triumphs and joys, as well as the loneliness and growing dependency, of the aging process. She was also a born entrepreneur who without any training or business experience built a global organization operating in 120 countries. The book recounts her dealings with numerous government officials as she expanded her humanitarian efforts. She became friends and had deep influence on figures as disparate as Pope John Paul II, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who all feature in the book.

The book details the author's twelve years of legal representation of Mother Teresa, including stand-offs with governments, betrayals by bishops and priests, Steve Jobs's request to feature Mother in Apple's ads, the infamous "Nun Bun" (which became fodder for late-night television humor), and endless fights against the appropriation of Mother Teresa's image and good name. Towey also addresses the criticisms directed at Mother Teresa during her life and since her death, including her unwitting association with a priest who turned out to be a serial pedophile, her acceptance of donations from a financier later convicted of crimes, and how her merciful motherhood withstood spiteful attacks from such figures as the journalist Christopher Hitchens.