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In this piece by Adam Lee, God is a stick, I found myself shaking my head in dismay at the action of a Catholic priest and school in Missouri:

A Catholic school in Missouri expelled an eleven-year-old student, not because of anything he did wrong… but to punish his mother for speaking out against book censorship.

 Can a Church school divorce itself from the believers who attend it because a lack of agreement?

According to the letter, he’s being expelled because his parents, Paul and Hollee Muller, have “stated both verbally and in writing you do not agree with nor do you support the teachings of the Catholic Church. After prayerful consideration and discussion among our school administration it is obvious we no longer have a partnership with you, since the values of your family are not in alignment with those of our school. Therefore, the school administration has made the decision to disenroll your child from our school.”

Adam Lee, author of the blog, draws some possible conclusions:

You could note that book censorship is now a standard tactic of the religious right, crossing denominational boundaries. You could draw inferences about the sharp rightward turn of organized religion, including Roman Catholicism. You could observe that this choice to drive out liberal believers is tangible evidence that the church hierarchy prefers a smaller, ideologically purified flock to a broader and more diverse one.

He highlights other points in his blog entry, well worth reading.

Remembering Anthony De Mello

One of my favorite Catholic priest, authors, was Anthony De Mello. I saw a video of his teaching, and picked up a few of his books. It wasn’t until later that I saw the Catholic Church had dumped him:

In 1998, 11 years after de Mello’s death, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of its Cardinal-Prefect, Joseph Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict XVI), conducted a review of de Mello’s work and released a lengthy comment expressing theological concern that de Mello’s books “are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm“.

I don’t remember any harm being caused by de Mello’s books. I own a few of them (or I did until I gave them away to my family, spreading his heresies with an encouraging smile).

Something about these two stories is similar. De Mello tells a story. I don’t have it accessible in a book, so I will do my best to tell it, even if my recollection fails. He is the better storyteller.

Break the Stick

“Sufi, will you allow me to be your student?” The sufi nods. 

“Your lessons begin tomorrow.” The next day, the student joins his teacher in the cave.

“How may I achieve enlightenment?” asks the student. Each day, the teacher says nothing. But he does pick up a stick and beats his student at the start of each day. No explanation is given.

After this goes on for some time, the student gets angry. He can’t understand. In a fit of anger, when the teacher starts to beat him over the head with the stick, the student grabs the stick out of the teacher’s hand.

He breaks the stick and tosses it to the ground.

“Ah, you are now on the path to enlightenment,” says the teacher.

Conclusion

With those two stories in mind, I can see why de Mello’s books were seen as incompatible. And, perhaps, why it’s time for the folks in Missouri to break some sticks of their own. 

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