Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 2 is preceded by a number of photographs that show Mother Teresa in her Calcutta mission and with various famous people around the world. Some of these celebrities are widely respected, such as Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Others have notorious public images, such as Michele Duvalier, convicted American swindler Charles Keating, and shady British newspaper mogul Robert Maxwell. The text begins with the assertion that the Catholic Church fascinates many people because of its attitudes toward sex and procreation. Homosexuality, premarital and extramarital sex, and solitary sex are all taboo. A woman experiencing danger in childbirth is expected to die rather than sacrifice the unborn baby. Hitchens says following mass rapes in wars, Mother Teresa and the pope appealed to women not to abort the resultant pregnancies. He analyses the Catholic prohibition against abortion in...