Long-time ICSA advisor and supporter Rabbi A. James Rudin to receive highest papal honor

ICSA E-Newsletter
17 November 2022

ICSA Editor's Note: In 1980 Fortress Press published Prison or Paradise? The New Religious Cults by A. James Rudin and Marcia Rudin. ICSA, which had been founded in late 1979 as American Family Foundation, was honored and continues to be honored to count Jim and Marcia, as old-timers in this field know them, as advisors and supporters. Jim worked for many years with the American Jewish Committee, serving ultimately as its Interreligious Affairs Director until his retirement in 2000. Jim’s emphasis on dialogue in interreligious affairs helped inform ICSA’s emphasis on dialogue and diversity of opinion throughout the years. The following press release from St. Leo University describes Jim's accomplishments and his most recent distinction as a recipient of the Papal Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

Cardinal O'Malley to Present Historic Honor to American Rabbi on Behalf of Pope Francis in Ceremony on November 20 at Saint Leo University

ST. LEO, FL – For only the third time in history, a pope is honoring an American rabbi with the Papal Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. This also marks the first time in his papacy that Pope Francis is granting the honor to a Jewish person: Rabbi A. James Rudin, co-founder of Saint Leo University’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies (CCJS).

Pope Francis will recognize Rudin for his decades of work in building positive Catholic-Jewish relations throughout the world, fostering interreligious dialogue and understanding. Rudin is the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) senior interreligious adviser, having previously served as its Interreligious Affairs director. He also is a distinguished professor of religion and Judaica at Saint Leo University, in addition to establishing the university’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies.

Investiture Ceremony

At 1 p.m., Sunday, November 20, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, OFM, of the Archdiocese of Boston, will represent Pope Francis and conduct the investiture ceremony at Saint Leo University. The public is invited to this historic event, which will be followed by a dessert reception at 2 p.m. in the university’s Wellness Center, 33701 State Road 52, St. Leo, FL 33574. Reservations are required. Register to attend the investiture ceremony in-person here. Parties of six or more should contact Dr. Matthew Tapie, director of Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, at matthew.tapie@saintleo.edu.

The ceremony will also be available via livestream at https://www.saintleo.edu/papal-knighthood.

“For more than 50 years, Rabbi James Rudin has worked to advance Catholic-Jewish relations, and interfaith relations on a wider scale, with extraordinary skill, dedication, and success,” O’Malley said. “The Catholic Church was particularly blessed by Rabbi Rudin’s many years of close working relationships with Cardinal John O’Connor in New York and Pope Saint John Paul II. We are all blessed by Rabbi Rudin’s achievements in promoting dialogue and collaboration among communities of different faiths. The impact of this work continues to grow as successive generations build on the foundation Rabbi Rudin has established.

“I am honored to be able to present the rabbi with the papal honor bestowed by Pope Francis, a most deserved recognition and tribute,” continued O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston. “We are grateful to Saint Leo University for generously hosting Rabbi Rudin and all who will gather for this recognition of his dedication to bringing people together in the name of the Lord.”

Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg, director of United Nations Relations and Strategic Partnerships for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has worked with Rudin in the field of interfaith relations for more than 25 years. He noted that the papal honor, “comes at a crucial time when Jews are under assault around the world, and this knighthood clearly demonstrates the evolving positive relations between Catholics and Jews. Rabbi Rudin well deserves this historic, international honor."

Dedication to Dialogue

Rudin, of Fort Myers, FL, is a prominent author and public speaker, and an international leader in interreligious relations. He was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Alexandria, VA. He attended Wesleyan University and graduated from George Washington University with academic distinction. Rudin received his rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), and served as a U.S. Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea.

His most recent book, a memoir published earlier this year, The People in the Room: Rabbis, Nuns, Pastors, Popes, and Presidents, tells of his travels and meetings with leaders as well as community members throughout the world. [Editor's Note: See Religion News Service's interview with Rabbi Rudin about this book.]

He was a member of the Camp David Presidential Retreat Chapel Committee and co-founded the National Interreligious Task Forces on Soviet Jewry and Black-Jewish Relations. Rudin met many times with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and was the guest of honor at the 1994 Vatican event commemorating the Holocaust.

"The Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rejoices that Pope Francis will confer upon Rabbi A. James Rudin the Papal Knighthood of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great,” reads a statement from the USCCB. “We give thanks for the many contributions Rabbi Rudin has made to deepening ties of friendship between Jews and Catholics. It is our hope and prayer that the example of his dedication to dialogue will help to bring Catholics and Jews across the nation even closer together."

Founding the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies

The importance of that interchange of ideas prompted the formation of Saint Leo University’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies in 1998. Rudin said he first heard of the then-Saint Leo College in the 1970s when his wife, Marcia’s, stepmother, Dr. Barbara Kaplan, taught music at the college. “She said Saint Leo was a fine small college,” Rudin said of the university that now is one of the largest Catholic universities in the country. “She and my father-in-law, Dr. Max Kaplan, lived in Tampa, and she commuted to the campus. Fast forward to 1998 when I noted that Florida had an increasing population of Jews and Catholics, and that dynamic demographic trend was likely to continue. There was no Christian-Jewish academic center south of Baltimore at that time.”

Rudin met with the then-college president Arthur Kirk Jr., who liked the rabbi’s proposal of creating an interreligious center on campus. Kirk, Rudin, and Bruce M. Ramer, then-president of the American Jewish Committee, signed a joint statement establishing CCJS.

As the college grew and became a university, the late Bishop Emeritus John J. Nevins of the Catholic Diocese of Venice (FL); and now Bishop Emeritus Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg (FL) became co-founders of CCJS. These leaders recognized the need in the state for an academic center devoted to the biblical and theological study of Catholic-Jewish relations and interreligious dialogue, as emphasized by the Second Vatican Council.

Today, the CCJS is a leading academic center for the study of Catholic-Jewish relations. While it started as a stand-alone, lay-driven and financed project at Saint Leo, it became fully integrated into the university in 2013 and will celebrate its silver anniversary—25 years—in 2023, Rudin said.

Now, Rudin’s commitment to forging understanding between the two traditions is being recognized by Pope Francis in the awarding of the Papal Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory. The papal knighthood was created by Pope Gregory XVI (1745-1846) in 1831, and named in honor of St. Gregory the Great, who died in 604, and whose writings greatly influenced the Church.

The Papal Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory is the highest honor the pope bestows upon individuals, both Catholics and non-Catholics, in recognition of their significant contributions to society. Rudin, through his work building respect and understanding between Catholics and Jews, exemplifies this.


For more information, contact, Dr. Matthew Tapie, director of Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, at matthew.tapie@saintleo.edu; or Rabbi David Maayan, the Maureen and Douglas Cohn Visiting Chair in Jewish Thought and assistant director of the CCJS, at david.maayan@saintleo.edu.

Photo by Brian Tietz, Saint Leo University

About Saint Leo University

Saint Leo University is one of the largest Catholic universities in the nation, offering 62 degree programs to more than 15,800 students each year. Founded in 1889 by Benedictine monks and sisters, the private, nonprofit university is known for providing a values-based education to learners of all backgrounds and ages in the liberal arts tradition. Saint Leo is regionally accredited and offers a residential campus in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, 16 education centers in five states, and an online program for students anywhere. The university is home to more than 100,000 alumni. Learn more at saintleo.edu.

Media Contact: Mary McCoy, Senior Editor & Media Relations Manager, mary.mccoy02@saintleo.edu, (352) 588-7118 or cell (813) 610-8416

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/5-6/2022 (Religious Research, Cult Involvement, Video, Podcast, Meth, Book Launch, Dialogue and Cultic Studies)

Religious Research, Cult Involvement, Video, Podcast, Meth, Book Launch, Dialogue and Cultic Studies

Global News: Gone by 2040': Why some religions are declining in Canada faster than ever

"Religiosity in Canada is at an all-time low, with recently released data from Statistics Canada showing only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older now report having a religious affiliation. It's the first time that number has dipped below 70 per cent since StatCan began tracking the data in 1985.

In response, Global News has spent the past two months speaking to members of religious communities across the country and looking at historical data to determine why this is happening. This is part one of that series.

It's important to note that this decline is not across the board; the number of Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus is increasing, and StatCan predicts the number of Canadians reporting a non-Christian religious affiliation could double by the year 2036.

Christianity, however, is in sharp decline. In 2011, 67.3 per cent (about 22.1 million people) of Canadians said they were affiliated with a Christian religion. In 2019, that number had dropped to 63.2 percent. Catholicism, Canada's largest denomination, now accounts for 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996."

The decline is even more precarious for Canada's United and Anglican churches.

Jon Atack :  The Dynamics of  Cult Involvement

Pat Ryan and Joe Kelly have worked helping people exit and recover from cults for many years. In this week's video, they join Jon to talk about the nature of authoritarian control, the nostalgia some 

Butterflies and Bravery: Meth And Me

"In this episode Jemima bares it all and talks about some of her previous vices, focusing on her meth addiction. She holds nothing back as she takes you down the long dark road she walked. You'll be on the edge of your seat as we delve into the world of drug addiction. Find out how Jemima got clean without attending meetings or having a religious epiphany, and how she managed to stay that way. Sometimes there's not a why, there's not a way, there's just holding on."

INFORM: Book Launch – "Radical Transformations in Minority Religions", edited by Beth Singler and Eileen Barker

(February 10,  2022, 5:30 - 7:30 pm GMT, Zoom)

About the book: All religions undergo continuous change, but minority religions tend to be less anchored in their ways than mainstream, traditional religions. This volume examines radical transformations undergone by a variety of minority religions, including the Children of God/ Family International; Gnosticism; Jediism; various manifestations of Paganism; LGBT Muslim groups; the Plymouth Brethren; Santa Muerte; and Satanism. As with other books in the Routledge/Inform series, the contributors approach the subject from a wide range of perspectives: professional scholars include legal experts and sociologists specializing in new religious movements, but there are also chapters from those who have experienced a personal involvement. The volume is divided into four thematic parts that focus on different impetuses for radical change: interactions with society, technology and institutions, efforts at legitimation, and new revelations. 

Respondents will include: 

• Professor Emeritus James A. Beckford, University of Warwick 
• Michael Langone, Executive Director, International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), USA 
• Professor Linda Woodhead, King's College London 
• Register

ICSA E-Newsletter: ICSA's Openness to Dialogue: Historical Perspective

"From its founding in 1979, ICSA strove to apply professional perspectives and research to understand and respond to the problems posed by cults. This professionalism has made ICSA open and tolerant, and, consequently, credible. Though there were and continue to be different opinions about how open ICSA should be, the prevailing view has always been that we must not be like cults, which are closed-minded and censor or refuse to engage with those who advocate dissenting views.

The reasons for and importance of openness and dialogue was formally articulated in a document written by the ICSA Board of Directors: "Dialogue and Cultic Studies: Why Dialogue Benefits the Cultic Studies Field." Historical background can be found on ICSA's history page, especially "Changes in the North American Cult Awareness Movement."

ICSA's openness to dialogue can sometimes be difficult to reconcile with ICSA's mission of helping those adversely affected by cultic involvements. Former members, especially those who have been traumatized, may feel discomfort -- sometimes revulsion -- when ICSA's openness to divergent views exposes them to people with positive views of cults or even of religion in general. Openness may also challenge parents and helping professionals who are focused on ameliorating harm. Conversely, some academicians may interpret ICSA's focus on cult-related harm as an anti-religious bias.

Because ICSA is open to diverse and conflicting views, ICSA cannot please "all the people all the time." Some degree of tension and discord, therefore, is unfortunately unavoidable. This tension can be challenging, but it can also enhance learning and thinking creatively about cult-related problems.

ICSA is unique because it brings together in a coherent and substantial way international constituencies of victims, families, helping professionals, and researchers. The diversity within ICSA promotes an environment that is conducive to thinking broadly about the subject and to learning from those one might not ordinarily encounter. "Stress-testing" our opinions is a hallmark of critical thinking."

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Dialogue With The Devil—ISKCON and The Anti-Cultists

Anuttama Dasa

ISKCON News

September 15, 2017

Events

"Past mistakes and remaining prejudices lead some anti-sect folks to consider meeting Hare Krishnas like dialoguing with the devil. Some ISKCON people may feel the same about the anti-sect groups."

Bordeaux, France—Four senior ISKCON members from Europe and the United States attended the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) annual Conference in this historic city from June 30-July 2, 2017.

Presentations were made by sociologists, social workers, academic researchers, therapists, Buddhist monks, government officials, and ex-members from a variety of religious and social organizations deemed, in one way or the other, “sects” or “cultic.”

Attending such conferences is not new to ISKCON. ISKCON members first reached out to dialogue with ICSA’s predecessor organization, the American Family Foundation (AFF), more than twenty years ago. Since then, more than a dozen members of the Communications Ministry and other ISKCON leaders have attended such conferences.

The terms “anti-sect” and “anti-cult” are controversial. For simplicity sake, here we refer to those individuals, organizations and government agencies who study or monitor groups said to be cults because those groups exhibit harmful, or cultic behaviors. Cultic symptoms include isolation of members, lack of accountability of leaders, denial of appropriate care for members, unquestioned submission to leaders, excessive demands upon followers, and physical, emotional, psychological, or sexual abuse by leaders.

Not particularly inspiring topics. So why go?

“ISKCON devotees tend to be social critics who understand that great harm is done within human societies all over the world,” said Mahaprabhu dasa, ISKCON European Minister of Communications. “That’s one reason people come to Krishna Consciousness; we’ve been disappointed in our worldly affairs and seek spiritual alternatives.”

Yet a danger still lurks, Mahaprabhu points out. “Religious groups, including our own movement, are vulnerable to the same human frailties. That can lead to cultic or abusive behaviors within. Sadly, we’ve have had our share of abuse and exploitation which have hurt our members, our communities and our reputation.”

“In ISKCON’s earliest years, our members were all young and a little naïve,” said Rukmini dasi, a member of ISKCON since 1968 who has also attended four ICSA conferences. “Overtime we learned that we need checks and balances to hold ourselves accountable and ensure we’re transparent in our interpersonal and professional dealings.”

“Prabhupada himself established the Governing Body Commission (GBC) to oversee Temple Presidents as well as individual the GBC members. He diversified the authority structure in ISKCON and clearly didn’t want too much power in any individual’s hands,” Rukmini concluded.

The bottom line, Mahaprabhu points out, is that we are all subject to making mistakes. As a global movement with thousands of local communities we need to be aware of the potential for harm. Doing so greatly increases our potential for good.

Mahaprabhu also noted that religious groups are especially vulnerable to abuse, or cultic behaviors, because of the extra ordinary importance and faith they place on spiritual leaders, understanding them to represent God in some way. That is true whether those persons serve their communities as Ministers, Priests, Rabbis, Gurus, Imams, GBC members, Temple Presidents, or whatever.

Many conference presenters pointed out that the first principle of avoiding cultic behavior is to ensure that members and leaders of groups know they are never “above the law,” whether social or spiritual.

Within ISKCON, the GBC has made significant strides in recent years to inform and train devotees—both leaders and general members—of the need to act ethically, ensure transparency and provide checks and balances at all levels of leadership. But more needs to be done.

“Efforts like the ISKCON Disciple Course, the Spiritual Leadership Seminar [Guru Seminar], the GBC College, ISKCONResolve, and other projects all provide better training for ISKCON members, especially leaders, and to help ISKCON uphold transparency and ethical behavior across the board,” said Mahaprabhu.

“Its not just that because one is a Bhakta Vriksha leader, GBC member, Prabhupada disciple, or guru, that he or she is above being held accountable,” said Rukmini. “Whatever our seniority, we are all responsible for our behavior. We’ve learned at these conferences about the dangers of abuse, and if we love Prabhupada, we need to be faithful to his society and help protect it by holding ourselves and our society to high standards.”

At the same time, past mistakes and remaining prejudices lead some anti-sect folks to consider meeting Hare Krishnas like dialoguing with the devil. Some ISKCON people may feel the same about the anti-sect groups. “Not so,” says Mahaprabhu. “Over the years, ISKCON has built respectful, beneficial relationships with many people at these conferences.”

The devil, he points out, is if we fail to look honestly and openly at past problems, or don’t follow through in creating systems that will minimize mistakes and abuse in the future.
https://news.iskcon.org/dialogue-with-the-deviliskcon-and-the-anti-cultists,6285

Hindu View of Christian Salvation

DR. DAVID FRAWLEY 
Hindu Post
March  27, 2016

Christian conversion is based upon the promise of forgiveness of all sins and everlasting salvation by belief in Jesus. It is important that Hindus and all others subject to conversion efforts understand the wrong ideas and wishful thinking behind these views.

Christianity is based upon a theology of sin and salvation. In the Christian view, one is born into sin owing to the original sin of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, as described in the Bible, who were tempted by the Devil and went against God’s will. We gain salvation through Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, whom God sent down to Earth to redeem us. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and the original sin of Adam and Eve, which his blood washed away.

Those who accept Jesus as their savior and become Christians are said to be immediately saved. Faith in Jesus is the basis of salvation, not any action of our own. According to Christian thought, nothing we can do apart from accepting Jesus can save us. Souls who fail to accept Jesus are condemned to damnation, however good or wise they may be. Each individual has only one life to make this decision to accept Jesus or not, which is then irreversible for all eternity.

After death, those who are saved go to heaven, where Jesus dwells. In Christianity, heaven is usually a physical world, which requires a physical body, such as promoted in the Christian belief in the Last Judgment and resurrection of the body, and the reason why Christians bury the dead. Those who are not saved are condemned to eternal damnation.

Such is a brief synopsis of historical Christian theology, which has slight variations among different Christian sects. There is no Christianity without Jesus and no salvation without faith in Jesus. This idea of sin and salvation by belief in Jesus and gaining a place in heaven is the basis of Christian conversion efforts, and of baptism to become a Christian.

Evangelical Christians, such as are coming to Bharat from the USA, take this theology literally, and still argue that the world is only six thousand years old as proclaimed in the Bible. Some modern Christians, perhaps embarrassed by the condemnation of the majority of the human race that remains non-Christian, try to explain it away as metaphorical. Yet to date the Catholic Church has not disavowed this theology of sin and salvation either.

Hindu View of Liberation

Hindu Dharma respects freedom of belief for all people, holding that there is ultimately One Truth and a unity of consciousness behind all existence. Hindu Dharma states that each individual should be free to follow whatever spiritual path he or she feels most drawn to, or even no path at all.

Yet this view of religious pluralism does not mean that Hindu Dharma regards all religious theologies as correct or equal. The Hindu view like that of science allows for the existence of a variety of theories but these theories must be proven by experience and cannot be regarded as correct merely because someone believes in them.

Hindu Dharma encourages us to inquire into our inner nature through examining our own minds and striving to come to a direct realization of truth, which it teaches through various dharmic philosophies and meditation practices.

Hindu sacred texts like the Upanishadsand Bhagavad Gita describe the supreme truth or Brahman as an infinite and eternal Being-Consciousness-Bliss (Sacchidananda) beyond all names and forms. This unlimited Being is the Self of all, Atman, dwelling within each creature.  The Supreme Reality dwells with you as you, not as your mere physical body but your core awareness, the inner witness behind all your thoughts and experiences.

In Hindu Dharma, the soul is an individualised power of consciousness and has many lives as it evolves in consciousness to realize its true nature of unity with the Supreme. The individual soul is bound by ignorance and karma, which is the cause of rebirth and suffering, a failure to recognize its true nature that causes attachment to the external world of appearances, birth and death.

The Hindu view is one of karma and rebirth, not sin and salvation and one life only. All souls will gain liberation eventually and return to their true nature of pure consciousness. The goal is not one of heaven but of Self-realization. It is not of a glorified physical world but a blissful awareness beyond body and mind.

Interfaith Discussions

We must be very clear about our concepts in interfaith discussions. There has been a superficial and uncritical approach that equates Christian salvation and Hindu liberation (Moksha), as well as equating religion as faith with the Sanskrit term dharma.

In Hindu Dharma there is no original sin attributed to our ancestors or to any Devil that we must atone for. There is only an ignorance and wrong actions that arise from it. This ignorance is removed by knowledge of truth and development of higher awareness, not by mere belief.

We as individuals are responsible for our condition in life that results from our own karma. There are certain actions that are inherently wrong, like harming others. These do not depend upon the commandment of any deity but on a violation of dharma and natural law.

No Salvation or Spiritual Realization by Proxy

In Hindu Dharma , there is no salvation or liberation by proxy. Neither Jesus nor any other figure can save you or realize the truth for you. In fact you do not need to be saved at all!

You only need to understand your true Self and the nature of existence, which are one, which takes you beyond all suffering born of attachment to body and mind. To transcend ignorance requires a sadhana or spiritual practice, defined in Hindu Shastras through dharmic living, ritual, mantra, Yoga and meditation.

One cannot go beyond karma and ignorance simply by believing in someone or by accepting someone as your savior. That is merely wishful thinking. Just as another person cannot eat food for you, or be educated in your place, you must do your own spiritual practices to purify body and mind in order to access the universal consciousness.

A heaven that requires a physical body is only an attachment to the earth and physical reality in disguise, not understanding our true spiritual nature. The soul does not need a body for its happiness. Its true nature is the pure light of awareness.

One may honor the compassion shown by Jesus, but Christian theology of sin and salvation is far from the truth. It does not reveal our true nature or explain our real purpose in life.

We must have a clear discernment of different theologies and their different goals. Only Self-knowledge brings about liberation. Christian theology, including that endorsed by the Vatican today, does not teach this and its goal of salvation is very different.

http://www.hindupost.in/society-culture/hindu-view-of-christian-salvation/

Reflections on Reading the First Seventy Issues of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Bulletin

Fr. Philip Simo, OSB

from Bulletin 71, September 2003

Fr. Philip, of St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, DC, is one of the newest members of the MID board. He recently read through all issues of the bulletin published during the past twenty-five years and offers these personal reflections drawn from his reading.

All organizations are urged to revise their mission statements from time to time. The members of the MID board did so at the turn to the new millennium and introduced their revised statement with the following words:

We have learned from happy experience since 1978 that this dialogue, while increasing our understanding and appreciation of other religious traditions, also helps us to come to a richer understanding and full appreciation of our own spiritual and theological heritage. So, as of October 2000 we state our mission as:

Monastic interreligious dialogue is made up of Christian monastics who, at the request of the Apostolic See, engage in interreligious dialogue as a way of giving expression to the monastic charisms of listening and hospitality. We foster dialogue on the level of spiritual practice and experience between North American monastics and contemplative practitioners from other religious traditions for the purpose of mutual spiritual benefit and communion.

All of the above and much, much more is the fruit of 25 years of joyful labor, sacrifice, prayer, and commitment on the part of countless men and women who have given themselves to the task of acceptance and understanding, that is, to genuine dedication to dialogue. In the little journey you are about to take through the last 25 years, be aware that every handshake and smile, greeting and goodbye, word and gesture, as brief and fleeting as each may have been, had at its source that Ground of Being, that Absolute, that nudges us to come together to express the inexpressible, to be Love and Compassion, to bring Justice and Hope.

The North American Board for East-West Dialogue, later renamed Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, came to life in a timely fashion, in 1978. Society had been experiencing growing pains from the early 60s in response to the overwhelming destruction of the Second World War. Over 50 million had died, and the survivors couldn’t once again put faith in authority and institutions as they had known them before the two World Wars. After all, look at what the world as we made it had brought! It was time to rethink ourselves and our institutions.

Part of this personal and societal analysis and transition came about through the churches, other parts came through popular culture and experimentation with newly emerging lifestyles, such as the “hippie” lifestyle with its drop-out, free-love, and drug orientation, and the New Age movements that embraced less traditional but not necessarily new ways of living, a turn to the self as the place to find God. As the Catholic Church began hammering out its future during the Second Vatican Council, the Beatles sang their way into our cultural heart with a new beat, Haight-Ashbury got its name on the map, and the Psychedelic Age was about to light-up and inhale with Timothy Leary. It was the Beatles’ visit to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India that brought the East and Eastern philosophy and religion into my life (I was 11 years old and living in Brooklyn) and into the average middle-class American living room.

Certainly, academics and specialized groups in the churches had long been aware of the East and its religions as something to be studied and evangelized; the Parliament of World Religions in 1893 attested to that interest. But now even “Joe” at the corner bar began to know something about meditation and the exotic Guru, and he began to meditate (after paying his $60 bucks to learn his mantra). Transcendental Meditation (TM) was here to stay, even after the Beatles denounced the Maharishi for less-than-transcendental behavior involving an accompanying devotee, and with him came a flood of gurus and Eastern forms of meditation and practice. Some were frauds who extorted money like Rajneesh, some were very esoteric, others used brainwashing techniques that put permanent smiles on their followers’ faces, but most, such as Muktananda and Paramahansa Yogananda, Prabhupad and Aurobindo, were and still are, through their devotees, honestly trying to forge bonds between East and West with the highest intentions and ideals. Everything began to reflect this interchange, this new interest in the Transcendent: our popular music, our clothing (remember the Nehru jacket?), our speech and religion, and our psychotherapy. Remember EST?

By 1978, the year the MID began and the year I graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia with a BA in Comparative Religion, everything about the East in America and Europe was coming into full flower. Things became far more esoteric. Astral travel, angelology, auras, Kabbala with Rabbi Zalman Schacter, Edgar Cayce, Seth Speaks, Children of God, the Moonies, Campus Crusade for Christ, Jews for Jesus . . . and many more. I was friends with them all, and the give-and-take was tremendously exciting. Five years after Thomas Merton had died at an intermonastic conference in Bangkok, a follow-up conference was held in Bangalore in 1973, followed by Cardinal Pignedoli’s request the next year that monks promote and develop this work of dialogue with non-Christians: “The existence of monasticism at the heart of the Catholic Church is, in itself, a bridge connecting all religions.” American and European monastics were about to dive into their own traditions and faith more deeply, to swim at depths of similarity and convergence with their brothers and sisters of all religions. By then our society had been swimming in the uncharted waters of various disciplines for about 20 years, with new discoveries about psychology and religion, Native American spirituality, science and medicine, evolution and the complexities of the human brain. With the technological revolution and secular life speeding along like a runaway train, it was the perfect time to contemplate and experience with monks, nuns, and laypersons of all religions the basis of all this newness, this movement of greater awareness of ourselves and the earth we call home. With the world shrinking and communication expanding, it became imperative to see Christ in our brothers and sisters of all faiths in order to help bring peace and stability to a world that for too long had known only strife and bloodshed, hardship, war, and division.

In 1978, Fr. Armand Veilleux, with pioneers such as Sr. Pascaline Coff, Sr. Donald Corcoran, Abbot Jerome Hanus, Abbot Martin Burne and others on the first board, decided on an aim: to assist in the development of dialogue within North American monastic houses, alerting monks and monastic women to available resources and stimulating and sensitizing all to the need for and the value of East-West dialogue. These men and women would, in turn, help sensitize the East to Western spirituality and traditions, thereby awakening both East and West to various riches and possibilities.

The meeting held from June 4-13, 1977, at Petersham, Massachusetts, had gotten this ideal off to a good start. Sr. Denyse Lavigne, OSB, enthusiastically embraced the possibilities for dialogue to bring about real and needed structural change in monasteries, such as allowing for temporary lay vocations and re-thinking monastic life and structure in reflection on the East, the Desert Fathers, and other early sources of monasticism. It is important, as Merton had pointed out, that an authentic contact with the past of your own tradition and religious community be present if authentic contact is to be made with others. From the beginning, as through all of the last 25 years, it was understood that a long habit of meditation disciplined by silence is an essential starting point for fruitful dialogue. The early participants knew this well, and their conviction has been strengthened and developed through the years.

Three men who understood this from experience and who have been pillars of the dialogue tradition are Fr. Mayeul de Dreuille, Fr. Bede Griffiths, and Fr. Raimon Panikkar. Fr. Mayeul expressed an aspect of their life and work when he said that if you wish to commune with others you must first have a sincere wish to learn from others, with a strong belief that they have something to give. Secondly, you must have respect for categories of thought in the interlocutor, leaving the other to express his thoughts in his own way with all the time he needs to express himself. And thirdly, you must be ready to exchange something real. There is an urgent need for us to have a better knowledge of the Christian mystical tradition.

Fr. Bede—a man of prayer, a learned man steeped in the riches of the mystics and doctors of the Church, a man of adventure and risk—contributed to the dialogue by living it wholeheartedly and shaping it through his life and work at Shantivanam. Through lectures and workshops, writing and visiting, prayer and sacramental worship, he offered himself completely to the Christ who lives in each person he met. With Abhishiktananda and Abbé Jules Monchanin he helped bridge the gap between peoples, regardless of their real or imagined differences. Meditation and contemplation is the key: “Unless you meditate on and then realize the text and the doctrine in your life, there is no sense in listening to it.” The goal is union with the Divine. From that spring social justice, compassion and love, freedom and peace. The goal for dialogue is realization through experience and practice.

I see Raimon Panikkar as another giant. He has given so much over the years because he has so much to give. Not only has he helped bring the East and West together through his many fine books and lectures, but he is another living example of the “mysticism of integration” As he put it so well in 1980, “We live under the very sign of multiplicity… and through this the monk ‘sails through the stream’ in a simplicity that is holy because it reveres the real in a harmonious respect. The mysticism of transcendence (West) and immanence (East) is being supplanted by the mysticism of integration.” His book Blessed Simplicity beautifully expounds on the “monastic dimension as one constituent which every human being has, and must cultivate in one way or another.” This has shown itself to be a supremely important point as those involved in the dialogue have come to realize, over time, the necessity of including the larger population in dialogue for the sake of peace and justice. No one should be left out when such gross misunderstanding between nations and religions is gaining ground and threatening life and peace.

I will conclude this piece by reflecting back on the three points that Fr. Mayeul raises. First, he said we should ask the question: Have the monastic participants in the dialogue shown a sincere wish to learn from others, with a strong belief that they have something to give? In 1980, Abbot Simon Tonini of the European DIM strongly encouraged individual monastics from the West “to live for two or three months with non-Christian monks in their own Eastern milieu, for a time more at the level of experience than of study….This would be far more effective with more striking results for interreligious dialogue than any courses or congresses in one’s own milieu.” As his own experience in India taught him, “there are two things one has to admire [in the religious men and women of India]: their quest for the Absolute and their poverty, an almost heroic detachment.” There is no doubt that over the past 25 years participants have been eager to visit and learn from monastics of the East. The many exchanges show clearly that both sides in dialogue have something to give, especially through shared experience in prayer and meditation. The visits of the Tibetan Buddhists to Western monasteries since the early 1980s not only brought a knowledge of their plight as a people and their struggle to be free, but also provided many opportunities for dialogue with the Dalai Lama himself, culminating in the Gethsemani Encounter in 1996.

There was also the invaluable prayer of the Assisi event, when the Holy Father spoke of the Holy Spirit as operative in all religions. Visits of mostly European monastics to Zen monasteries in Japan, of North American Benedictines and Cistercians to Tibetan monasteries in India and Tibet, and of many from both Europe and North America to Christian ashrams in India, have been invaluable cultural experiences, helping to press the point the Dalai Lama made at Gethsemani: “The differences between religions are very good, for each religion serves the unique needs of a group of people, but at the same time it is important that people of different faiths recognize their common ground and from this place mutually serve humanity…. At times religion, instead of helping, is blamed for conflicts throughout the world. For this very reason it is imperative that religions have awareness of their differences and their common ground.” Let us take these words to heart. In the next 25 years, we should try to have more frequent chances to live in the East not only to better understand the rise of Hindu nationalism and the tensions with Islam but also to allow for more intensive study of the religions precisely as religions. The numerous meetings, seminars, and congresses have provided an invaluable exchange of ideas and practice here in the States, Europe and India, but they are no match for an actual immersion into a place, a people. Do we have enough interested monastics for such a future with our shrinking numbers?

Secondly, Fr. Mayeul points out, the person coming to dialogue must have respect for the categories of thought in the interlocutor, leaving the other to express her thoughts in her own way at whatever pace she needs. This, it seems, has been the most challenging part for the dialogue throughout its lifetime, not only for the monastics who are wholeheartedly seeking understanding between religions but also and especially for the Holy See and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Throughout the dialogue with all its transitions and changes, the N.A.B.E.W.D. and the contact persons working in the field have been diligently laboring to come to a greater understanding of their own tradition’s riches. This is well illustrated by the example of Abbot Thomas Keating’s development and exposition of Centering Prayer. Not only did he bring to the fore The Cloud of Unknowing and call for a re-examination of the apophatic tradition, but he also re-enkindled this prayer in light of our new contact with Eastern forms of prayer and meditation. Here we see a jumping-off point not only for practice but also for conceptual and verbal dialogue. Do we both share similar categories when it comes to articulating that which is beyond forms? To find categories in common, to re-interpret or rightly interpret doctrine and content in order to find similarities, sameness, and real differences is what Abbot Thomas’ work has done, enhancing in its detail some of the broader strokes of Bede Griffiths and Raimundo Pannikar.

In December 1989 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a letter on meditation to the bishops of the world. The Vatican, which had been encouraging dialogue with other religions for 25 years, was here showing concern about meditation. The issuing of the letter also showed that the Congregation was trying to learn more about and trying to understand, not dismiss, other religions as serious contributors to our growth as Christians. Up until this point in time, it was easy and comfortable enough for the Church to encourage dialogue focused on and justice issues, but now that dialogue was mingling practice and doctrine, the Congregation stood up and took notice. The responses to the “Instruction on Aspects of Christian Meditation” showed that more homework needed to be done on the part of all involved if greater misunderstanding was to be avoided. To learn whether that homework was done by the time of the release of the Congregation’s document Dominus Jesus we can only turn to the responses of those who we know did do their homework, such as Fr. Jacques Dupuis, Fr. Pierre de Béthune, Sr. Meg Funk, Sr. Pascaline Coff, and many others who have devoted their entire lives to this work. Fr. William Skudlarek spoke well for the MID in issue 66 of the bulletin when he discussed our monastic charisms of “listening and hospitality” as ones that “we especially wish to bring to the evangelizing mission of the Church.” If dialogue is to continue with respect, we as dialogue partners must show a continuous deepening of understanding through study, along with practice and experience, so as to avoid merely guessing at what things mean.

Fr. Mayeul’s third and last point is that we should exchange something real. After reading through all 70 issues of the MID-DIM Bulletin from 1978 to the present, I must say that if what has happened in dialogue wasn’t real, nothing is. It is outstanding and heartening to see how much good has come about through grace, and to know that I will have a small part in a giant endeavor. In reading about so many wonderful people and events—the congresses, the retreats, the meetings, the trips, the books, and the saints—you don’t have to worry that there isn’t something real here. After all, “Samsara is Nirvana.” Keep up the good work, all of you who dialogue!!! And congratulations on your 25th birthday.