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