It is ironic that one of the most obvious candidates for sainthood in the latter half of the 20th century is now being vilified as one who did little to ease the suffering of the poor who came to her and who expected the 3,000 sisters in her order to suffer needlessly to make God happy.

Those allegations and more are leveled against the late Mother Teresa in the winter issue of Free Inquiry, a publication of the Council of Secular Humanism (P.O. Box 664, Amherst, N.Y. 14226-0664). Writing in the latest edition of the magazine, a former Missionary of Charity sister, Susan Shields, recalled her days as a key official in the order.

Shields says she left the order in 1989 when she became disillusioned with a life that, she says, consisted of absolute obedience and a complete avoidance of all human attachments, even with those being served.

To Mother Teresa, suffering in this life was the pathway to God's grace, according to Shields. The more a person suffers, according to Mother's theology, the more God is pleased and will bestow grace upon the world.

Shields then charges that primitive methods were used to treat the poor and dying who came to the Houses of Charity for some kind of deliverance from their suffering. This occurred, Shields says, in spite of the millions of dollars sitting in banks all over the world.

That charge has been made by other writers, but Shields is in a better position to know because she handled donations, wrote receipts and thank-you notes and participated in begging merchants for everyday supplies, even though the order appeared to have ample money to pay a fair market price.

Of course, now that Sister Nirmala has assumed leadership of the order, grand changes could happen. If the criticism of the order is true, there could be gentle pressure to improve the ministry.

It is true that Mother Teresa had three beliefs that focused her thinking. First, that suffering is good. Second, that abortion is always wrong. Third, that despite the overpopulation of the world, birth control must never be used.

Mother Teresa had other key beliefs, too: in complete obedience, in a generous God and in a devotion to Catholicism that seldom has been equaled. But those first three became a tunnel through which she viewed the world.

In another article in Free Inquiry, written by Judith Hayes, a free-lance writer, Mother Teresa's theology of suffering is reported to have produced a memorable anecdote. Hayes says Mother Teresa once approached a dying cancer patient not with pain killers but with a theological platitude.

"You are suffering like Christ on the cross," Mother Teresa allegedly told the patient. "So Jesus must be kissing you."

Hayes says the patient replied, "Then please tell him to stop kissing me."

Also bothering many of Mother Teresa's critics is her lack of attention to easing the burden of poverty and misery in India, even though she had incredible influence in the church and in political circles around the world. Some say she also had money to feed many more starving people than she did in her soup kitchens.

Various sources say that more than 400 million people are living in brutal poverty in India, and that 73 million children there are malnourished. The factor that probably does more than any other to sustain that poverty is the illiteracy rate, which involves 350 million Indians.

Mother Teresa's critics say she did little to attack those social problems, even though she had the means and the support.

But in an attempt at fairness, I need to note that wiping out poverty and illiteracy was not Mother Teresa's focus. She set out as a young woman to form an order than would bring a touch of humanity and the theology of the Catholic Church to the poor of the world. She never pretended to be a doctor who could wipe out or even soften the pain of death.

She and her little army of sisters were there to bring spiritual comfort to the suffering, a concept that apparently escapes her critics.

Clark D. Morphew