By Robyn Pennacchia

Indiana, April 29, 2020: The lawyers of the Missionaries of Charity have demanded that a Republican Congressional candidate in the United States stop running advertisements featuring Mother Teresa’s image and likeness.

Dr. Chuck Dietzen, a Republican running to represent Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District, has been running an advertisement in which he brags on having worked at Mother Teresa’s orphanage, and which shows a picture of him working on a patient as she stands there watching.

The lawyers say the saint was never into such kind of things.

The campaign ad begins with Dietzen, in voiceover, saying, “When I worked in Mother Teresa’s orphanage, she told us, ‘never abandon your patients.’ I’ve lived by those words ever since.”

Florida attorney Jim Towey sent a cease and desist request to Dietzen, saying Mother Teresa’s image should not be linked to a political cause, the Indy Star reported. The video has not yet been removed, as of April 27.

“During her lifetime, Mother Teresa strictly prohibited any political use of her name, image or likeness, or any other representations that sought to associate her with any political cause or campaign,” his letter read.

“Your YouTube campaign ad, which begins with footage of Mother Teresa, is in direct violation of her wishes, as well as the wishes of the Missionaries of Charity who exclusively control the commercial use of her name, image and likeness.”

In Dietzen’s defense, he is also in that picture and is not claiming that Mother Teresa has personally endorsed him or anything, he’s just saying that he met her and liked a thing she said to him.

Also in Dietzen’s defense, Mother Teresa actually did frequently associate herself with political causes and campaigns. Like that time she endorsed Indira Gandhi’s 1975 crackdown on civil liberties by saying “People are happier. There are more jobs. There are no strikes.”

Dietzen has not yet officially responded to the case and desist letter.

https://www.wonkette.com/mother-teresas-lawyers-say-gop-congressional-candidate-cant-run-on-having-met-her-one-time