Merton Dropped From Handbook

[HagiaSophia]

Hundreds of scholars and other admirers of Thomas Merton are lobbying to get the late Kentucky monk’s life story put back into a new Roman Catholic handbook on church teachings.

The catechism is being published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; it will be the first that American bishops have produced specifically for adults.

It is illustrated by a series of short biographies of Catholics whose lives demonstrate aspects of church teaching. And it once opened with a short profile of Merton, a young spiritual seeker who wrote a best-selling account of how he converted to Catholicism and became a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown.

But in the final draft, approved by bishops in November and awaiting Vatican approval, the Merton section is replaced by a biography of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, an early American Catholic convert and founder of the Sisters of Charity.
Merton advocates have suggested that his story was removed at the behest of conservative critics of the monk’s later exploration of Buddhism and other Eastern religions.

An online article posted in 2003 by Catholic World News, an independent Catholic news service, criticized the earlier draft for including Merton. The article’s authors &mdash Monsignor Michael J. Wrenn and Kenneth D. Whitehead &mdash described him as a “lapsed monk” who spent his last days “wandering in the East, seeking the consolations, apparently, of non-Christian, Eastern spirituality.”

And Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh, chairman of the editorial oversight board for the book, was quoted in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article in November as saying one concern was that “we don’t know all the details” of Merton’s exploration of Buddhism. He also said young people “had no idea” who Merton was.

Wuerl did not reply to repeated requests for comment made by The Courier-Journal through his spokesman.

But Monsignor Daniel Kutys, executive director for the Office of the Catechism for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops replaced Merton so they could start the book with an American saint and to provide more gender balance, because most of the other profiles are of men.

“It was more a choice for Elizabeth Ann Seton than against Thomas Merton,” Kutys said.

Louisville Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said he voted for the catechism.

“I would have been glad if Merton was included, but you can’t get everybody in there,” he said. “… I don’t think Merton’s stature is diminished by being absent.”

courier-journal.com/localnews/2005/01/01ky/A1-merton0101-7306.html

 

[Marie]

I like the idea of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Merton, well he is not a Saint, nor up for canonization that I know of. So, I think Seton is the better choice.

 

[serendipity]

I am sorry to hear that Merton was dropped, as he has inspired me greatly, particuarlly when I was thinking about changing faiths.

I don’t find Elizabeth Ann Seton the least bit inspirational, but as noted, she is a saint and I think the first American to be cannonized at that. It makes sense to begin with her profile in an American book.

 

[Nichevo]

There is an excellent discussion of this over at Christopher Blosser (Ratzinger Fan Club)'s Blog, Against the Grain.

Here is the link you have to scroll down a bit to the Jan 2nd Entries:

ratzingerfanclub.com/blog/

 

[Fidelis]

I think it is a good choice. I have visited St. Elizabeth Seton’s shrine a couple of times and was very inspired by what I learned of her. The fact that she was a convert, wife, mother, then a religious would seem to indicate that she has a lot to offer most people. On the other hand, I’ve never quite managed to get into Merton, although that may be a reflection of my own pragmatic style of spirituality. Given a choice whether to include a saint or a non-saint in a book like this, the saint should get preference, IMHO.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I will admit my bias, as an Eastern Catholic somethings of Merton bother me as does his writtings and “explorations” later in his life.

I have to say that I agree 100% with Marie.

Marie:

I like the idea of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Merton, well he is not a Saint, nor up for canonization that I know of. So, I think Seton is the better choice.

I think it is better to use saints to illustrate this sort of thing and to top it off she was an American Catholic convert. What is better than that?

 

[mercygate]

ByzCath:

I will admit my bias, as an Eastern Catholic somethings of Merton bother me as does his writtings and “explorations” later in his life.

I have to say that I agree 100% with Marie.

I think it is better to use saints to illustrate this sort of thing and to top it off she was an American Catholic convert. What is better than that?

I was invited to lobby for reinstating Merton in that book but declined for all the reasons mentioned by you and others. This is a Catechism. In other words, vulnerable newcomers to the faith will be exposed to it. Now, who of us wasn’t influenced for the better by early Merton? But the later stuff – even if perfectly orthodox – would be confusing for a novice to Catholicism.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Where did Cistercian monk Thomas Merton find the time to write? Was he a Brother or was he ordained?

 

[Christopher]

Merton – who was ordained a priest – was encouraged to write his spiritual autobiography Seven Story Mountain at the request of his superiors. He went on to write on a variety of topics – a history of his order; essays on prayer, contemplative spirituality, the Desert Fathers, etc.

 

[HagiaSophia]

mercygate:

I was invited to lobby for reinstating Merton in that book but declined for all the reasons mentioned by you and others. This is a Catechism. In other words, vulnerable newcomers to the faith will be exposed to it. Now, who of us wasn’t influenced for the better by early Merton? But the later stuff – even if perfectly orthodox – would be confusing for a novice to Catholicism.

I thought this essay on history of catechisms had an interesting note:

"…For the first story in the draft NAC is devoted to none other than the late Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. Now Merton may have been an influential writer, but he was also a monk who was not faithful to his vows, including his vow of chastity. It is shocking, in fact, that the story of such a man could have been included in the draft of an official Church catechism. Has nothing been learned from the humiliation the Church has suffered as a result of the tolerance by Church authority of violations of her moral teachings? Some of the other “contemporary” choices of personal stories may similarly be inappropriate for an official Church catechism–choices of people who are both too close to us in time to allow a measured judgment of the exemplary character of their lives; and, in some cases, who are surely “off message” anyway, as far as the official teachings of the Church are concerned.

cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=20616

The New National Adult Catechism

The draft version of an American catechism shows great promise, but also serious deficiencies that must be corrected.
By Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn and Kenneth D. Whitehead
Dec. 27, 2002

 

[Kevin_Walker]

HagiaSophia:

"…For the first story in the draft NAC is devoted to none other than the late Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. Now Merton may have been an influential writer, but he was also a monk who was not faithful to his vows, including his vow of chastity.

Did I read this right? PUH-LEASE correct me if I am getting this wrong, but is it true that Fr. Thomas Merton was not faithful to his vow of chastity while writing as a Trappist monk? If this is true, why wasn’t he defrocked?

If there is anything I cannot abide, and that is a liar. When someone gives their word under God then there is no excuse at all for not keeping it.

But before I start using Thomas Merton books for doorstops and dartboards, could somebody confirm or disprove this allegation that Trappist Monk Thomas Merton was not faithful to his vows, especially that of chastity?

Thanks!

 

[HagiaSophia]

Kevin Walker:

But before I start using Thomas Merton books for doorstops and dartboards, could somebody confirm or disprove this allegation that Trappist Monk Thomas Merton was not faithful to his vows, especially that of chastity?

Oh Kevin - for heaven’s sake calm down. If you know anything about Merton it was that he was a seriously conflicted individual who went through various stages in his life.

If we throw out all books by everyone who sinned we’ll be using sign language through the world.

If you don’t know anything about Merton the man and his conflicts with the church, with his abbot, and mainly himself, I offer the following article as an excellent synopsis of the many layers of this very complicated, very conflicted man. It would pay you if you are reading all of his work or a great deal of it to read the entire article thoroughly and become acquainted with the WHY of things. He was not a liar, he was a conflicted human living out his life with many inconsistencies, many battles and deep struggle.

And this comes from a person who really doesn’t like Merton’s work, outside of a line or two hither and thither. But to be fair to the man one must look at the entire life, the whole struggle and his candor in attempting to share as much of himself with others as he felt he could.

"…Intimately interwoven with these four Mertons is someone we are forced to call Merton the Man. This Fifth Business never entirely settled down. The Contemplative, as may be seen in painful detail in the journals, is constantly vacillating, though in his public work Merton displays spiritual mastery. The Writer is gifted, but so much so that he has a tendency toward glibness. The Bohemian Merton got the others into any number of scrapes, and the Activist Merton often got carried away by currents in the sixties that-in retrospect-were not entirely fair to American society. Yet when all is said and done, Merton remains one of the great contemplative spirits of the century. …

But a pretty young student nurse came in. A Catholic, she knew of Merton from a book her father had given her. Something erupted between them- even though she had a fiance in Chicago. On leaving the hospital, he wrote her about needing friendship. She wrote back, instructed by him to mark the envelope “conscience matter” (lest the superiors read the correspondence). Under “conscience matter,” Merton sent a declaration of love. Thus began a series of deceptions, and Merton only narrowly avoided the shipwreck of his monastic vows because of the impossibility of the whole situation.

Until the later volumes of his journals appear, we will not have Merton’s complete account of the episode. But we know that during the storm, Merton used friends to carry messages and provide meeting places. He ignored warnings and even thought of a chaste marriage (though chastity was not particularly high in his thought at that point). They met for dinner and drinks, wine and picnics, listened to music together. Merton wondered how he could live without her.

Dom James found out about the relationship (another monk overheard a telephone conversation), and ordered Merton not to contact the young woman again, but surreptitious contacts went on for some months. Biographers such as Michael Mott agree that the incident reflects several unresolved conflicts in Merton. To his credit, Merton wanted it eventually to be known for what it said about his neediness and incompleteness. Some of the available notes are striking: “Passing near the hospital, I thought I was slowly being torn in half. Then several times while I was reciting the office, felt silent cries come slowly tearing and rending their way up out of the very ground of my being.” Though he was wrong, it is hard to wholly condemn him. The atmosphere of the 1960s drove other people into much worse, and in the end he did the right thing…"

leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9702/articles/revessay.html

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Yes, thank you. I read the whole Thomas Merton outline. I can see why he was criticized for being a “lapse monk”. Maybe he shouldn’t have become a monk at all.

Also, I noticed there was no proof or admission that Thomas Merton broke his vow of chastity. A man being infatuated with and admiring a woman is normal and healthy, as with St. Francis and St. Clare.

I cannot but help to compare the short biography of Thomas Merton to the excellent autobiography WANDERER by Sterling Hayden, another lost and conflicted individual who should never have become involved with Hollywood.

There are many conflicted, lost, and searching individuals I grew up with in my working class neighborhood of South Boston, some have gone to monastaries in Italy, one just ran away to Tibet with a Buddhist group, all had troubled upbringings and were obviously conflicted. Sigmund Freud called this a “Fugue” - a flight from reality. Thomas Merton seems to have fitted this pattern. I do not agree that the Priesthood is a place of refuge for the conflicted or emotionally disturbed because it causes problems like what is happening in the Church right now.

I do not admire conflicted individuals romanticized by pop culture(the “smoke of satan”): Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Jack Keroac, Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, Jim Croce, Sid Viscious, et. al.; who are hardly Catholic role models and detract from all the hardworking, decent, and stable individuals who go unrecognized on a day to day basis.

Thank you for this information on the checkered background of Thomas Merton. His writings may be just as equally overrated as Herman Melville or Marcel Proust.

 

[Lorarose]

I find St. Elizabeth Seton’s story to be incredibly inspiring.
She lost her husband. She converted despite pressure from her family.She was a mother to 5 children (suffering the loss of one or two of them). She was instrumental in the establishment of our catholic parochial school system.
She gave instruction to the children of the poor with great love.

And - she has been declared a saint by the Church.

To me…there is no question about which choice was better.

 

[Maranatha]

NCR has taken up Merton’s cause in an article here.

natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005a/031105/031105a.php

“In an impassioned response, some 500 Catholics have petitioned the bishops’ catechism committee to reverse its acquiescence to the critics’ charges that Merton is an unsuitable role model for young adults.”

Does anyone know how they petitioned the bishop’s catechism committee?

The conclusion of the NCR article is interesting:
*The catechism conflict, for better or worse, reveals confusion about what it means to be orthodox in post-Vatican II society, about who ultimately has the power to decide, and by what means…This glove-game pits, in one corner, two champion defenders of orthodoxy against, in the other corner, the titleholders of American Catholicism.
*They believe the dissenters are the titleholders of American Catholicism. That statement seems to forget that the Pope and the Magisterium are the real titleholders.