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WHAT DOES THE CHURCH’S LIBERAL LEFT THINK OF THE ASHRAMS?
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- “ This man, Bede Griffiths, is dangerous
- In 1990 he was obliged to defend himself before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Its prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, could not have been comfortable with Griffiths’ views
- The Vatican prefers display to deep engagement ; it still silences the messengers
- Theosophical Publishing House
- Matthew Fox
- Institute for Creation Spirituality
- Bede Griffiths is dangerous . To the Catholic Church and to the Christian faith
WHAT DOES THE CHURCH’S LIBERAL LEFT THINK OF THE ASHRAMS?I submit to the reader excerpts from The Christian Yogi: Bede Griffiths traveled East to speak to the West, by Arthur Jones, Editor-at-large of the National Catholic Reporter [NCR], USA February 18, 2005 “This man, Bede Griffiths, is dangerous. That the Benedictine monk died at his Shantivanam (Forest of Peace) ashram in India in 1993 at the fine age of 86 does not alter the fact - except to the extent his death intensifies our understanding of our own situation. Griffiths, this Hindu sannyasi (ascetic), a Catholic priest, elegant in his writing, in person charming, in death could too easily be diminished into icon-only status. His is a pleasing lithograph of shoulder-length flowing hair, neatly trimmed swami beard, handsome face, kindly if penetrating eyes bordered by haloes and swirling smoke of incense. His writings belie the image. They are danger-daring prods, cautions, lures, inducements, challenges, barbs, warnings and reassurances from a man who found nature first, and through nature God, and through God Catholicism, and through Catholicism Benedictinism, and through the monastic life, Eastern mysticism. All blend in his person and words, not into a homogenized spiritual glop, but concentrated as a beam of light capable of penetrating the darkest corners of early 21st-century decadence and blindness to the future…. “Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings, published by Orbis [Roger Haight], contains… many… selections from Griffiths’ work. It includes an extensive introduction by the Benedictine Camaldolese monk Thomas Matus [see pages 36-37] The Other Half of My Soul: Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Dialogue, compiled by Beatrice Bruteau, [see pages 18, 28, 63, 75] provides a précised biography, and much else of considerable worth…. “In his midlife during the 1960s, Griffith was not yet the revered mystic- despite the popularity of his autobiography, published in 1954. For many he was still an exotic novelty. The Beatles hadn’t gone Eastern, yoga was still a fad, and the sound/word/symbol Om was a sure-fire laugh-getter from comedians on black-and-white television whenever the name Alan Watts (1915-73), an early Western proponent of Zen Buddhism, could be worked into their routine. If Griffiths still did not have a lot going for him in the West of the ’60s (or in the Vatican in the 1980s when it investigated him), in India he had found his anchorage. His immersion into the Eastern mysticism that he melded into his Benedictine monasticism bolstered his personal footings as bridge between East and West. “In the excellent Other Half of My Soul, Wayne Teasdale, [see pages 17, 59, 63, 76] one of the book’s two-dozen essayists, describes what Bede experienced: ‘Mysticism has but one goal: total transformation into love, or deification of the individual and the ecclesial community. In Christian terms, this means entrance into the fullness of Christ.
“Griffiths wanted no less from the Catholic church. Griffiths wrote of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) opening up the Catholic church to other religions and bringing it into contact with other traditions in a way that was changing the church. Projecting from Griffiths’ optimism a decade after his death, it is reasonable to counter that in fact during this pontificate the Catholic church has rejected the possibility that other religious traditions might legitimately help transform it, just as it has set out to punish those Catholics best equipped to bridge the gap - Griffiths included. In 1990 he was obliged to defend himself before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Its prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, could not have been comfortable with Griffiths’ views [which were]: “If Christianity cannot recover its mystical tradition and teach it, it should simply fold up and go out of business” (Matthew Fox quoting Griffiths in Other Half of My Soul)…. The Vatican prefers display to deep engagement; it still silences the messengers. There are few of them left. Von Brück argues for a sober and truthful analysis of the present state of interreligious affairs. Griffiths could have candidly provided it. As it is, we have his writings, thanks to Templegate and, thanks to Quest Books, an imprint of the Theosophical Publishing House, the words of the scholars around him who hope to shore up the eroded dialogical dream. In an age when religious fundamentalism has taken on the role of the Goths, when the new Dark Ages of the Cartesian mechanistic model exalt materialism and acquisition above all else, when religion in the Catholic church means obedience without question, …we have only Bede Griffiths and his like, those working for a new dawning. That dawn’s sun would be a shining seriousness toward, and respect for, the other. It would mean a willingness to absorb what is worthy of incorporation from the other, rather than a tendentious insistence on primacy among those who are, in mystic ways and many traditions, equals before God. Bede Griffiths confronts the West. The Western church. The Cartesians. His honesty makes him dangerous. His simplicity means he will last. This compendium of volumes - and, surely, more commentaries to come - ensures he will be understood.” NOTE: The NCR is the media vanguard of the Catholic left in the States. Roger Haight, a Jesuit professor of systematic theology at the Weston School of Theology, in Massachusetts, and onetime president of the Catholic Theological Society of America was prohibited from teaching Catholic theology for his “grave doctrinal errors” in a Vatican notification signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, December 13, 2004. Matthew Fox [see pages 6, 39-40, 55, 60, 63, 85] was a Catholic priest who taught New Age spirituality, says ‘former nun’ Mary Ann Collins in www.CatholicConcerns.com [March 2002, revised June 2004]. The NCR of February 21, 2003 in an unflattering critique of the Vatican Document on the New Age, said, “The best known case involving the Church and New Age spirituality was that of former Dominican theologian Matthew Fox who in 1994 became an Episcopal priest. Fox was silenced by the Vatican in 1988, then expelled from the Dominicans in 1993, largely in reaction to the unconventional programming at his Institute for Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California. Among other things that caused concern among church authorities, Fox hired faculty members who included a masseuse, a Zen Buddhist, a yoga teacher and a self-described witch named Starhawk.” The late Dr. Robert Wayne Teasdale was Bede’s disciple, and the one who started the Indian Express debate [see page 78]. In a letter which was published in the IE of June 1, 1987, he praised Fr. Bede Griffiths for the latter's study of "the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita as well as other texts sacred to the Hindu tradition." We also learn that Bede’s writings are published by his followers through an affiliate of the Theosophical Society, which the 3rd February 2003 Vatican Document explains as one of the prime-movers of the New Age Movement. These, then, are the people who would defend and promote Bede and his teachings. Arthur Jones is correct. Bede Griffiths is dangerous. To the Catholic Church and to the Christian faith. A second perusal of the paragraph above, highlighted in bold font, will underline for the reader the extent of Jones’ left-wing leanings. 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