The issue of "suffering" in Catholicism is a way of taking a Biblical concept and stretching it to its very limits (flogging, walking on knees up stairs, being nailed to a cross, starving, living life completely "poor"). However, this tradition is something that was not promulgated by Christ, nor is it written about in the Bible*.
Over the centuries, Catholicism has been known for taking bits and pieces of the Bible and using them to their own ends, even to the point of rewriting the 10 Commandments, and telling their adherents that they don't need to (or should NOT) read the Bible because that's what priests are for. Not reading your Bible (Revelation), and changing the Bible ("jots & tittles") are two things with dire consequences.
Mother Theresa may have been a very good woman, a "saintly" woman in the eyes of many, but unless she had a personal, saving relationship with the Living God, she was just another human being full of faults and sins, who lived a helpful, but dour life. And without this relationship, no matter how good of a life she lived, this path would not lead her to a life with Christ in paradise. Same for the Pope. Same for anyone, no matter what their rank in life, period. Being worshiped by mankind is no guarantee of a pleasant afterlife!
*self-punishment is not what is implied in the Bible. If one suffers for Christ, it means that one is willing to take a stand, no matter what the circumstance, for one's belief in Christ: that He is Lord and Savior, Creator, God and Messiah over any and all; it does NOT mean self-inflicted suffering because one feels they are a "bad person," and thereby they need to purge themselves of this sin by self-inflicting some type of punishment. By His birth and resurrection, Christ did away with all of the legalism that was running rampant with religion overall (Jewish and otherwise).
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