Thomas Merton's journey is particularly disheartening for me, because Seven Storey Mountain helped me move Christ and my faith to the center. I wonder if the abbott's decision to allow him to write the book--which was a very un-Cistercian decision to make--didn't end up being an occasion of sin. If he had gone to Gethsemane and simply lived the life of a Trappist would he ever have ended up entertaining the celebrities of the counterculture and deciding he needed to be hip as well as Christian? Apparently, he introduced psychotherapy into novice training and underwent psychoanalysis himself as part of learning how to apply it to his novices. The conclusion of his psychologist was that he wanted to build a hermitage in Times Square, which I think sums up Merton's life better in a few words than anything else that has been said about him.
28 February 2018 at 19:33
I wrote a post about spoiled priests (and nuns) about six years ago:
My impression is that few people have done so much damage as spoiled priests - who brought 'inside knowledge' of what they attacked.
Many were talented, learned, charming, eloquent, energetic, excellent writers - which of course only made them vastly more dangerous when they crossed over to serve the dark side.
If we add to them the numerous less famous priests, pastors, monks, friars (especially them!), bishops, archbishops and a Pope who were to a significant and crucial degree covert apostates (mostly in the sense of re-writing traditional Christianity to suit modern sensibilities) - then it can be seen that these foes masquerading as allies, these wolves in lambs' clothing, constitute just about the most important servants of evil outside of Communism (from which they were, of course, not distinct).
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Check out the whole thing, including comments - and see if you can suggest further examples of the type - think of this as doing a public service for this blog's readership.
"Spoiled priests (and nuns) - any other examples?"
1 Comment -
Thomas Merton's journey is particularly disheartening for me, because Seven Storey Mountain helped me move Christ and my faith to the center. I wonder if the abbott's decision to allow him to write the book--which was a very un-Cistercian decision to make--didn't end up being an occasion of sin. If he had gone to Gethsemane and simply lived the life of a Trappist would he ever have ended up entertaining the celebrities of the counterculture and deciding he needed to be hip as well as Christian? Apparently, he introduced psychotherapy into novice training and underwent psychoanalysis himself as part of learning how to apply it to his novices. The conclusion of his psychologist was that he wanted to build a hermitage in Times Square, which I think sums up Merton's life better in a few words than anything else that has been said about him.
28 February 2018 at 19:33