Could Thomas Merton ever be a Saint?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Prodigal1984
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
The nuns didn’t invent the story. It was in a lot of literature, and is currently all over the Internet. Apparently even Snopes presented it as being probably factual.

I also understand that this story about Thomas a Kempis is not the only such story out there, and that even if this wasn’t the reason for the denial of his cause, there were documented cases of one religious order claiming another religious order had buried people alive, or had a saint that had been buried alive and woke up in the coffin, etc. Apparently it was a thing.
 
Whether or not a person is canonized by the Church, has much to do with people pushing for the canonization.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen is an example. He loved driving Cadillacs and eating in fancy restaurants. Does this disqualify him from being canonized ? In the old days, it could have, but there are those advocating his cause and keeping it going.

Thomas Merton on the other hand, was not liked by many of his fellow monks at Gethsemane Abbey, mostly because he told them, they were not true contemplatives, but introverts. He was right on this in many cases.

Anyway, I doubt Thomas Merton has people pushing for his canonization like others who were canonized.

Jim
 
InThePew said:
As an aside, I believe that soon-to-be-Saint John Henry Newman is venerated by the Anglicans, the irony of which is palpable
Click to expand...
Well, not particularly ironic. Newman is on the Church of England calendar; so are More and Fisher. So, come to that, are Bonhoeffer and the Wesley brothers. The CofE doesn’t believe you have to be an Anglican to be worthy of commemoration.
 
It’s ironic because Newman suffered greatly during his life for converting from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Many of his family and friends shunned him.
Now the church of those who shunned him is commemorating him.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Newman suffered greatly during his life for converting
Click to expand...
That may be overegging it. He was highly controversial as an Anglican, and highly controversial as a Catholic. Of course his conversion affected some of his friendships, and, sadly, family relationships.
 
Last edited:
I think when your friendships and family relationships are severely affected/ broken off, this causes great suffering to most people.
It’s a story pretty common to converts, I would guess.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I think when your friendships and family relationships are severely affected/ broken off, this causes great suffering to most people.
It’s a story pretty common to converts, I would guess.
Click to expand...
It is - in case of former protestants according to so many Journey Home program participants. Relationships are broken off, people lose jobs, sometimes a marriage is broken over this…

I only read Newman’s Apologia, and probably some story of his life, but I do remember he suffered because of the conversion precisely, and that it was connected also to his beloved job at university, not only people (although that’s harder, but it was combined).
 
He is the one who took Buddhist meditation and created Centering Prayer right?
 
I’ll have to give Seven Story Mountain another try, it seemed very mundane and tedious going through each and every phase of his life often using excessive details which seemed to serve no purpose.
 
Bluebright said:
All the Buddhist bits are clearly problematic and while they might help in relations with our religions they are not to be incorporated. We should keep and oil and water approach and be respectful of our brothers and sisters but not mix any of their ideas into our doctrine.
Click to expand...
I am not sure that “they are not to be incorporated” really captures the meaning of the Church’s teaching on Non-Christian Religions:
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.
Nostra Aetate
Click to expand...
 
I enjoyed his biography of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. I’d recommend that.
 
In any event, I pray for Thomas Merton’s sainthood and intercession several times a week, along with about 2 dozen other people who don’t have a cause and some never will because they weren’t Catholic. There’s no need to wait for him to be a saint to ask for his prayers, but you should pray for him too since he might need prayers himself.
 
Sure, some of them lived very admirable lives. Eric Liddell, Rev. Bob Childress, the Ten Booms, and recent addition Eva Kor are a few from my list.
 
Last edited:
Bluebright said:
All the Buddhist bits are clearly problematic and while they might help in relations with our religions they are not to be incorporated. We should keep and oil and water approach and be respectful of our brothers and sisters but not mix any of their ideas into our doctrine.
Click to expand...
Merton never sought to incorporate Buddhist ideas into Catholic doctrine. Indeed, he himself recognised the vast differences. He was however interested in how methods of prayer from their spirituality could assist in the development of Catholic spirituality and prayer life. Sadly, many of those who go seeking a deeper sense of spirituality in far-Eastern religions fail to realise that much (if not most) of what they’re seeking has in fact been part of the Christian tradition for thousands of years, albeit that in the West we’ve really only started recovering those aspects of prayer over the last fifty years or so.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top