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A. Naturally, if they want peace, if they want joy, let them find Jesus. If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there. They come closer and closer to God. When they come closer, they have to choose.
Q. You and Pope John Paul II have spoken out against life-styles in the West, against materialism and abortion. How alarmed are you?
A. I always say one thing. If a mother can kill her own child, then what is left of the West to be destroyed? It is difficult to explain, but it is just that.
Q. Is materialism in the West an equally serious problem?
A. I don't know. I have so many things to think about. Take our congregation: we have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not a mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house. It doesn't matter how hot it is, and it is for the guests. But we are perfectly happy.
Q. How do you find rich people then?
A. I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more lonely inside. They are never satisfied. They always need something more. I don't say all of them are like that. Everybody is not the same. I find that poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
Q. There has been some criticism of the very severe regimen under which you and your sisters live.
A. We choose that. That is the difference between us and the poor. Because that will bring us closer to our poor people. How can we be truthful to them if we lead a different life? What language will I speak to them?
Q. What is the most joyful place that you have ever visited?
A. Kalighat. When the people die in peace, in the love of God, it is a wonderful thing. To see our poor people happy together with their families, these are beautiful things. The joy of the poor people is so clean, so clear. The real poor know what is joy.
Q. There are people who would say it is an illusion to think of the poor as joyous, that they must be given housing, raised up.
A. The material is not the only thing that gives joy. Something greater than that, the deep sense of peace in the heart. They are content. That is the great difference between the rich and the poor.
Q. People who work with you say you are unstoppable. You always get what you want.
A. That's right. All for Jesus.
Q. What are your plans for the future?
A. I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.
Q. And the future of the order?
A. It is his concern.