The late professor Jacques Monod, the famous French geneticist and Nobel prize winner, in the course of a television session in Toronto with Mother Teresa, spoke of how in his opinion all our destiny was locked up in our genes, which shape and direct our character and outlook, thus destroying the individual.

As he held forth on this theme, Mother Teresa sat with her eyes closed and her hands folded, deep in prayer. On being asked by the programme's compere whether she had anything to say, she replied: "I believe in love and compassion," and resumed her devotions.

As the Professor was leaving the studio he was heard to mutter: "If I saw much more of that woman I should be in bad trouble!"