Jesuit leaders pray at Hindu shrine

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Jesuit leaders pray at Hindu shrine

Published : November 02 2009

KOLKATA, India : Senior Jesuit leaders from South Asia who prayed inside a shrine dedicated to a Hindu ascetic say the visit and prayers have “enriched” them.

About 20 provincials and regional superiors of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia spent 15 minutes at the shrine in Belur on Oct. 29, during an event designed to foster interreligious relations.

The Religious conference comprises provincials and regional superiors from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

More…
indiancatholic.in/news/storydetails.php/13737-1-11-Jesuit-leaders-pray-at-Hindu-shrine
 
Very nice. The Jesuits were praying their own way there. Sounds wonderful.
 
So, based on principles, praying at a Satanic Ceremony would be OK too?

100 years ago the Jesuits would be trying to save the souls of these Hindus and trying to convert them, not praying with them; that would be the charitable thing to do. This condones the Hindu religion, even though the Jesuits are praying in their own way, which is a sin.

Invite the Hindus to a Church to see the True Religion.
 
So, based on principles, praying at a Satanic Ceremony would be OK too?

100 years ago the Jesuits would be trying to save the souls of these Hindus and trying to convert them, not praying with them; that would be the charitable thing to do. This condones the Hindu religion, even though the Jesuits are praying in their own way, which is a sin.

Invite the Hindus to a Church to see the True Religion.
Where does the article state the Jesuits were praying with them?

And, if it did- what basis of objection would there be using primary sources please.
 
So, based on principles, praying at a Satanic Ceremony would be OK too?
**
100 years ago the Jesuits would be trying to save the souls of these Hindus and trying to convert them, not praying with them; that would be the charitable thing to do. This condones the Hindu religion, even though the Jesuits are praying in their own way, which is a sin. **

Invite the Hindus to a Church to see the True Religion.
I agree. This is a bad path and undisciplined.

Not cool indeed. Remember King Solomon acquiescing to idols due to his complicity with his many non-Jewish idol worshipping wives, and eventually losing his way?

This is in that same direction.

What the heck happened to the Jesuit order??

Anyway, when I read the headline, I had to read the article before seeing if this was innocuous or suspect…I don’t find it that innocuous. I see many read flags from the quotes and commentary…I’ll bold the troubling parts:
The shrine, which sits on the banks of the Ganges, north of Kolkata, is dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a 19th century Indian mystic, who claimed :confused::confused:to have had visions of Jesus Christ. Swami Vivekananda, the mystic’s most famous disciple, founded the shrine in 1886.
Calcutta Jesuit provincial Father George Pattery, who organized the visit, said the monks at Ramkrishna Mission, who manage the shrine, promote interfaith dialogue
They weren’t bothered by this??
Father Anthony da Silva, provincial of Goa, told UCA News the visit was “an enriching experience” and added the shrine’s mystical atmosphere “greatly impressed” him.
Gujarat provincial superior Father Keith Abranches commented that the visit was “inspiring and enriching.** It was another way of God-realization.”**
Dipankar Basu, a Hindu teacher at Kolkata’s Jesuit-managed St Xavier’s School, guided the group during their visit.
He said it was remarkable to see Catholic priests praying in their own way in a Hindu shrine. An event like this “is sure to have greater effects in creating goodwill, and help people of all faiths** to have a change in attitude toward other religions**,” Basu told UCA News.
This, sounds harmless right?

Those Jesuits, are playing with fire. Firstly, they’re also insulting the Eucharist by describing it as “another way” and “enriching” to pray in another shrine not of the true God, which profits nothing. If you already know the true truth…you have no excuse for this behavior.

Secondly, there is a way to change an attitude toward other religions, and that’s remembering that all are created in the image of God and deserve to hear the truth if they’re open to it in ways that we’ve used “interfaith” dialogue in the past, not be patronized and validated in their false beliefs through actions such as these.

This is not the way to have “interfaith dialogue” this is no different than King Solomon’s folly, and it’s a liberally modern view on “ecumenical” mixing and equalizing. They intentional or not validated this place where its founder “claimed to see Jesus Christ” yet still remained Hindu, as another “holy place”

That said, I might not know the whole deal with the priests themselves who may understand this, and their intentional prayers were misguided but their beliefs remained intact but these actions themselves have consequences, and it could lead others away into believing that “mixing” of the faiths and all truths outside of Jesus himself as truth, is possible. If there is anything to be concluded from these actions, it’s that this article itself is irresponsibly playing with fire. It could cause a Catholic not fully firm in their faith, to have an obscured view of the Father.

That said if people think I’m making too much of these Jesuits actions… Let it be known that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard anecdotes of priests dabbling outside of the Catholic faith, and later having a crisis of faith and converting to a false religion, only to be brought back when reminded of the Eucharist.

So really, I don’t condone what these priests did. Even if it’s possible to have such a strong faith that they’re protected.

Pray for those Jesuit priests, who knows, they might have had demons enter them since they described praying in that shrine as “enriching” and a “realization”…just saying. I’m half-joking, but you never know. 🤷
 
It may be more helpful to those of us who don’t know what the basis for your comment is, if you explained why you feel this way.
OK. thedavidwilson’s and veridical16’s posts put it nicely though - I really don’t have to add to it. They’re coming from the same perspective as me.

If anything, I would like to know what praying in their own way consists of. The Jesuits, by and large, have lost their spines.
 
It just goes to show: you can pray anywhere. God hears you no matter where you are, in the shower, in prison, in the mall. Even in a false religion’s shrine.

It’s wonderful that the Hindus are allowing Catholic priests to use their shrine for prayers. It could be a great way to witness to the Hindus.
 
It is very cool, indeed, to see that our priests are engaging in dialog and prayer with their neighbors in India. The article’s website has the imprimatur of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India:
The Indiancatholic.com is owned and maintained by the Office of the Spokesperson and the Media/Information Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. It aims to serve as a link between the Indian Catholic Church and the society at large.
. . . hence anyone who claims this news item is “uncool” ought to take up their beef with the Magisterium.
 
Does this mean that those who diagree that the Jesuits should not have prayed at the Hindu shrine, even though they prayed in their own way, does this mean that the Church made a big mistake? Did God also make a big mistake in granting a miracle through the intercession of Mother Teresa? She prayed at many Hindu and Muslim shrines. More Hindu than Muslim ones and named all of her religious houses in India with Hindu names.

Is Mother really in hell? What about when the pope prays at a mosque or synagogue or an interfaith worship as he prayed in NY? Is Pope Benedict wrong too?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
He said it was remarkable to see Catholic priests praying in their own way in a Hindu shrine. An event like this “is sure to have greater effects in creating goodwill, and help people of all faiths to have a change in attitude toward other religions,” Basu told UCA News.
got this from the article

they were praying to God inside a Hindu Temple. nothing wrong with that. its a good way to invite Jesus into the Hindu temple and perhaps lead them to the right way.
 
So, based on principles, praying at a Satanic Ceremony would be OK too?

100 years ago the Jesuits would be trying to save the souls of these Hindus and trying to convert them, not praying with them; that would be the charitable thing to do. This condones the Hindu religion, even though the Jesuits are praying in their own way, which is a sin.

Invite the Hindus to a Church to see the True Religion.
Pope John Paul II prayed at a mosque. It was a prayer of meditation or reflection, but still a prayer.
 
100 years ago the Jesuits would be trying to save the souls of these Hindus and trying to convert them, not praying with them; that would be the charitable thing to do. This condones the Hindu religion, even though the Jesuits are praying in their own way, which is a sin.

.
But if we look a this, they failed. This is not a moral fault on the part of those good Jesuits. It’s just a fact that their method did not Christianize the East. We have to look at new methods to find something that works. If these Hindus are also reaching out to Christians, as the article says, then to meet them in prayer, even if our folks are praying to God and the Hindus are praying to whomever they pray, it’s a good beginning to build a trusting relationship.

You can’t bring in a convert who does not trust you and much less one whom you offend. We know this from hundreds of years of missionary work in the East. If we look at someone like Mother Teresa who prayed with Hindus in their shrines, we see a very different result. Look at the number of Hindu men and women who became Christians and who joined her religious community. Today many of these men and women are missionaries in the USA, Europe, South American and Africa. They number in the thousands. The one converted the other and so forth. They did so by the example of a very holy life and by building a warm and trusting relationship between Hindus and Catholics.

You may want to read some of the testimonies of the Missonaries of Charity. Some of these women were leading women in their community. Mother’s successor herself, Sister Nirmahla, was a sociologist and later a lawyer. She became a Catholic through the warm example and relationship with another young Catholic woman, not through a campaign to convert her. She is a very holy woman.

Their current superior general, whose name escapes me right now, is a convert from Hinduism. She too was converted by Mother’s warmth and example, not by a campaign. In fact, they met at a temple. She too seems to be a very holy woman.

I know that the superior of our brothers in Calcutta is a former Muslim. He was converted by the brothers presence when they had the war with Pakistan. What he noticed most about the Franciscans was their desire to love as Jesus loved. He says that he never heard them preach to the Muslims to convert. They spoke to anyone who wanted to listen about loving their neighbor and building a lasting peace where God could reign. He says that those words meant a great deal to him and his family. That’s how he entered the Catholic Church. Today he’s the major superior for that region.

We Catholics are doing something different in India and it’s working better than what we did in the past. We’re getting converts and we’re also serving JESUS in the poorest of the poor in a country that needs our presence.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
. . . hence anyone who claims this news item is “uncool” ought to take up their beef with the Magisterium.
I think everyone here knows that the Indian Bishops’ conference is not the universal Magisterium. Thanks for playing.
Does this mean that those who diagree that the Jesuits should not have prayed at the Hindu shrine, even though they prayed in their own way, does this mean that the Church made a big mistake?
I think some people are assertnig that these Jesuits and possibly the Indian Bishops’ conference made a mistake. See above.
Did God also make a big mistake in granting a miracle through the intercession of Mother Teresa? She prayed at many Hindu and Muslim shrines. More Hindu than Muslim ones and named all of her religious houses in India with Hindu names.
What a silly question. Of course God doesn’t make mistakes. Quit trying to shame people into shutting up in the threads you respond to. Mother Teresa lived a particular life. She had an absolute determination and it served her well. She was not a theologian and she was sort of a loose cannon. God used her in many ways. However, we now know that she had what she considered to be terrible spiritual challenges which God chose not to relieve during most of her life. None of us knows what really went on there. None of us can comment with any certainty on any of the choices re: Hunduism that she made and what the effects on her spiritual life were. Quit using her as a poker chip. She may very well regret some of her Earthly activities at this moment. Quit acting like you know the answer.
Is Mother really in hell?
What a stupid question. Are you trying to tempt some Catholic to sin by passing judgement on her?
What about when the pope prays at a mosque or synagogue or an interfaith worship as he prayed in NY? Is Pope Benedict wrong too?
He certainly has the potential to be wrong. He IS a theologian and a first-rate authority, but I have no idea what the important details of any such activity are, and I’ll wager neither do you. Just because the Pope does something is no reason for you or me to pretend that we either 1.understand all there is to know about it or 2.should make our decisions the same way the Pope does.

That’s just common sense.
 
I think everyone here knows that the Indian Bishops’ conference is not the universal Magisterium. Thanks for playing.

I think some people are assertnig that these Jesuits and possibly the Indian Bishops’ conference made a mistake. See above.

What a silly question. Of course God doesn’t make mistakes. Quit trying to shame people into shutting up in the threads you respond to. Mother Teresa lived a particular life. She had an absolute determination and it served her well. She was not a theologian and she was sort of a loose cannon. God used her in many ways. However, we now know that she had what she considered to be terrible spiritual challenges which God chose not to relieve during most of her life. None of us knows what really went on there. None of us can comment with any certainty on any of the choices re: Hunduism that she made and what the effects on her spiritual life were. Quit using her as a poker chip. She may very well regret some of her Earthly activities at this moment. Quit acting like you know the answer.

What a stupid question. Are you trying to tempt some Catholic to sin by passing judgement on her?

He certainly has the potential to be wrong. He IS a theologian and a first-rate authority, but I have no idea what the important details of any such activity are, and I’ll wager neither do you. Just because the Pope does something is no reason for you or me to pretend that we either 1.understand all there is to know about it or 2.should make our decisions the same way the Pope does.

That’s just common sense.
You’re missing the point. It’s not trying to shame or set anyone up. It’s about showing how we have some wonderful and holy examples of people who have prayed in Hindu temples and have born much fruit, not because they prayed in the temple, but because they showed great charity. Praying at the temple while the Hindus also pray was their act of charity.

By the way, Mother’s dark night, did not obscure her moral and spiritual judgement. On the contrary, it heightened it. That’s the normal course of events during a dark night of the soul. The soul becomes very vigilant. This makes her actions very credible and very reliable examples of Christian holiness that should be immitated.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
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