Anthony de Mello, S.J.

[Lil Red]

i heard about this in passing, then looked it up for myself..all i could find was this from wikipedia:

[quote]Anthony de Mello (1931 - 1987) was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality. He hosted many spiritual retreats and was considered by some a gifted public speaker.

In 1988, after his death, his writings were condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI wrote for the Congregation, "But already in certain passages in [his] early works and to a greater degree in his later publications, one notices a progressive distancing from the essential contents of the Christian faith." In spite of this, his writings are available in many catholic book shops and he is read and respected by many catholics.

Father de Mello was born in Goa, the former Portuguese trading colony in India. He traveled to many countries to study and later to teach, most notably Spain and the United States. He was able to establish a prayer center in India. He died suddenly in 1987. His works are still in print and additional writings were published after his death.[/quote]

does anyone know of him or know of a better explanation about his writings being condemned?

[philothea]

[quote name='Lil Red' date='May 3 2005, 12:59 PM']i heard about this in passing, then looked it up for myself..all i could find was this from wikipedia:



does anyone know of him or know of a better explanation about his writings being condemned?[/quote]
From the CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH in 1998:

[url="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19980624_demello_en.html"] [b]NOTIFICATION[/b] CONCERNING THE WRITINGS OF FATHER ANTHONY DE MELLO, SJ[/url]

Written by guess who?

[Ash Wednesday]

It wouldn't surprise me. I bought a book of his at a Catholic store in Sweden before I really heard of him, and....

[img]http://www.toysrgus.com/images-food/fruitloops.jpg[/img]

[MilesChristi]

[quote][img]http://www.toysrgus.com/images-food/fruitloops.jpg[/img][/quote]

that says it all.

[MichaelFilo]

That was very clever. For those of us who don't know so much about him, can you tell us what in his book made such a response arise in you?

God bless,
Mikey

[Brother Adam]

In place of the revelation which has come in the person of Jesus Christ, he substitutes an intuition of God without form or image, to the point of speaking of God as a pure void. To see God it is enough to look directly at the world. Nothing can be said about God; the only knowing is unknowing. To pose the question of his existence is already nonsense. This radical apophaticism leads even to a denial that the Bible contains valid statements about God. The words of Scripture are indications which serve only to lead a person to silence. In other passages, the judgment on sacred religious texts, not excluding the Bible, becomes even more severe: they are said to prevent people from following their own common sense and cause them to become obtuse and cruel. Religions, including Christianity, are one of the major obstacles to the discovery of truth. This truth, however, is never defined by the author in its precise contents. For him, to think that the God of one's own religion is the only one is simply fanaticism. "God" is considered as a cosmic reality, vague and omnipresent; the personal nature of God is ignored and in practice denied.

[MichaelFilo]

For the sake of openmindedness, I won't call him a fool. For the sake of everyone else, he is a fool.

Very interesting. I'll pick up one of his books. You know, being a good ol' Jesuit (no sarcasm there, I think the Jesuits are a fine bunch) I'll give it a fair read. However, he is misleading to Catholics. Has he been excommunicated yet?

God bless,
Mikey