Anthony de Mello: His Life and His Spirituality

212 Pages·2006·7.21 MB·English

by  Anand Nayak

and
Anand Nayak
his spirituality

Anand Nayak
Anthony de Mello
HIS LIFE AND HIS SPIRITUALITY
the columBzt przess
First published in 2007 by
the coIuttibz* pRess
55 A Spruce Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park,
Blackrock, Co Dublin
Cover by Bill Bolger
Origination by The Columba Press
Printed in Ireland by ColourBooks Ltd, Dublin
ISBN 978185607 560 2
Copyright © 2007, Anand Nayak
Table of Contents
Foreword 7
CHAPTER ONE
Who is Anthony de Mello? 10
Early education 12
Becoming a Jesuit 13
Training in psychology 20
Missionary life 23
Retreat master and spiritual counsellor 24
Discovery of Indian masters 27
Institute for Pastoral Counselling and Spirituality 34
Sadhana Institute 39
Friends and detractors 45
The last pictures 49
CHAPTER TWO
Spiritual teachings of Father Anthony de Mello 55
An outline of Father de Mello's spirituality 58
1. Happiness is the goal.
But, instead, many experience only suffering. 59
Acquired happiness 59
Real happiness 63
2. The cause of suffering is attachment;
that is, happiness sought through conditions. 64
3. There is a way out: detachment through discernment. 66
What is detachment? 67
Discernment 68
Discernment through awareness 71
4. Happiness is freedom. 75
Concluding remarks: Spirituality without Jesus Christ? 77
CHAPTER THREE
Father Anthony de Mello's Spirituality
against the background of the Vatican's Notification 83
1. Father Anthony de Mello and his works 84
Two works wrongly attributed to Father de Mello 85
2. The positive features of the teaching of Father de Mello:
Oriental wisdom 89
3. Within the boundaries of Christian spirituality 91
4. Acceptable teachings 93
5. Progressive distancing from the Christian faith 95
6. Silence as the great revelation 97
7. The Heart and the void 100
8. Awareness, awakening and holiness 103
9. The Approach of the Notification 110
10. Personal nature of God ignored 112
11. The radical or exaggerated apophatism 120
12. Scripture as a road-sign 136
13. Religions 140
14. Truth and fanaticism 143
15. Jesus Christ 150
Jesus as master alongside others 158
The only difference between Jesus and others 159
Jesus is not recognised as the Son of God 163
Christ's presence in the Eucharist is but a symbol 165
16. Final destiny: Dissolving into the impersonal God 166
17. Time and destiny after death 172
18. Evil, ethics and morality; sin and repentance 179
19. Church has lost the authority to teach 189
20. Danger 198
CHAPTER FOUR
Is Father Anthony de Mello a danger to the Catholic Faith? 200
Reactions to the Vatican Notification 200
Pastoral guidelines of the bishops in India 201
The reaction of the Jesuits in India 202
Reactions over the world 205
Father Carlos Valles 208
To whom is Father de Mello a danger? 209
A Prophet for our times 210
Father de Mello: A Healer 210
Father de Mello and the future of the Catholic Church 211
Foreword
The publication of the Notification concerning the writings of Father
Anthony de Mello, S.J., issued by Vatican's Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith on June 24 1998, was a shock to Christians,
as well as to non-Christians, all over the world. People, who had
known Father Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) personally or
through his writings, were at loss as to why a solemn notific¬
ation was needed to warn Catholics against a person in whom
they had recognised a healthy sanctity rather than a danger to
the faith. Others who did not know Father de Mello wondered
why Rome should interfere with the writings of an Indian Jesuit
far away in India. Numerous reviews and newspapers reported
the event but, strangely enough, not one paper nor one serious
writer rose up in defence of the Vatican text.
Furthermore, the Notification was sent to all the bishops with
a letter annexed to it, whose contents were not to be divulged to
the public. It was written in clear terms by the Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger, ordering the bishops to intercept the sale of Father de
Mello's books and to see that his teachings did not circulate in
their dioceses. Most of the bishops, again at a loss to evaluate the
real danger, fulfilled their duty by bringing the document to the
notice of the public without, however, giving their own personal
comments on the matter. The Jesuit headquarters in Rome were
particularly silent on the issue, leaving the whole matter to the
Jesuits in India.
The Notification to this day has not brought any perceptible
results. The church in India and the Jesuits there have not taken
any steps to forbid the reading of Father de Mello's books. On
the contrary, they have recommended them to be read but with
a certain discernment. Surprisingly, however, they have not
taken any perceptible action to defend their brother, probably
not to further excite the Vatican authorities who have already
become apprehensive of the theologians in India. They seem to
be resigned, out of frustration, to the repeated interventions
from Rome which, in their opinion, betray an incapacity to un-
7
ANTHONY DE MELLO
derstand and justly evaluate what happens in the church in
India.
If Father de Mello's books have, in fact, disappeared from the
shelves of some pious bookshops, sales have increased in others
if only because of the Vatican's warnings against them. Some
shrewd booksellers have even attached red warning labels -
similar to those on cigarette packets - that reading the books
may be dangerous to the (spiritual) health of the reader.
Naturally, this action has boosted sales. The Vatican's action
seems to have succeeded in silencing the publishers of Father de
Mello's books, the Gujarat Sahitya Prakash. When I approached
them about the publication of this book, my offer was politely
declined.
The present study does not question the right of the church to
issue warnings for the good of the faithful, nor does it question
what the teaching body of the church determines as being right
or wrong. Its sole purpose is to point out to the public that the
writers of this Notification have produced a text riddled with
mistakes and based on a faulty comprehension and interpret¬
ation of the texts of Father de Mello. Of the texts adduced to
warn of the danger, there is not one that can be rightly used
against Father de Mello. This is doubtlessly a serious matter. For
those who sit so close, morally, but also physically, to the seat of
infallibility cannot venture to destroy the name and fame of an
illustrious spiritual master with a document riddled with faults.
In that way, the Notification seems to be self-destructive and calls
for an earnest revision of the question of Father Anthony de
Mello's writings.
The study of the document is made primarily in chapter
three of this work. To make the reading easier and to get hold of
some clear landmarks in a dense forest of ideas, I have taken the
liberty of presenting the Roman text in divisions and under sub¬
titles that are not in the original text, which is continuous and
difficult to read. The official text of the document is available on
the web at:
http: / / www.ewtn.com/library/ CURIA/CDFDEMEL.HTM
This study has been brewing in my heart ever since the
publication of the Notification. Although the substance of it was
worked out in my office at the University of Fribourg,
8
FOREWORD
Switzerland, I have the joy of terminating it on this day in my
family apartment at Bandra, in Mumbai, India, only a few feet
away from St Peter's Church where Father de Mello rests in
peace.
Anand Nayak
6 April 2006
9
CHAPTER ONE
Who is Anthony de Mello?
Although Father Anthony de Mello's books have become highly
popular all over the world, very little is known to his readers of
his life and person. Many, for example, do not know that he was
an Indian from India. I attempt here to draw a picture of his life
so that the readers might get a better background of his writings
and assess more justly the position which the Vatican Curia has
taken towards him and towards his work. None of his Jesuit
companions who knew him personally, nor his close and inti¬
mate friends, have attempted so far to write his biography. The
work of the Jesuit Carlos Valles, Unencumbered by Baggage: Tony
de Mello, A prophet for our times, appeared in 1987 (Gujarat
Sahitya Prakash, Anand), a few months after de Mello's death. It
is not a biography but a good description of the spiritual master
that he was for many. Almost a decade later, in 1995, a number
of his disciples and friends collected anecdotes from their exper¬
ience of their spiritual master in a book entitled We Heard the Bird
Sing: Interacting with Anthony de Mello, S./. (from the same pub¬
lishing house). Sometime back his brother Bill de Mello pub¬
lished on the Internet (http://users.tpg.com.au/ adsligol/tony/
or http: / / www.spiritwalk.org/demello.htm#biography) a short
but impressive account of his early life, with several family photos.
What I write here is only an attempt at a brief biographical intro¬
duction to the study of his writings.
Anthony de Mello was born on 4 September 1931 at Santa
Cruz, a suburb of the city of Bombay which is now known as
Mumbai. His mother Luisa Castellino (1906-1980) and his father
Frank de Mello (1902-1968) were both of Indian descent and
natives of Goa.
Goa, a region situated on the West coast of India, was a
Portuguese colony since 1510. In 1961 the Indian army re-con-
quered it and annexed it to the Republic of India in which it has
10