Above you see a Mass in the Trappist monastery of Kurisumala, India. The monks don't call it Mass but Bharatiya Pooja, which generically signifies any Indian worship. Like all the monks, the three concelebrating priests wear saffron tunics and are seated on the floor, legs crossed in the lotus position. The faithful present follow their example.

The liturgy has been completely "inculturated" into the Syro-Malanchar worship customs. The priest offers the Mass to "the Establisher of the eternal dharma for peace and the restoration of the cosmic order." The music is a mixture of songs from a Hindu Bhagavad-Gita source, Vedic Upanishads hymns, and some of St. Ephrem's poems. The Hindu influence also prevails in the daily monastic life.

Is this experiment Catholic? We don't believe so.

This Trappist monastery was established in 1958 by Belgian Cistercian John Mahieu and English Benedictine Bede Griffiths. The Trappists are a branch of the Cistercians, whose root is Benedictine. Mahieu and Griffiths hoped that the Kurisumala monastery would be a model of Christianity lived in a Hindu culture. Some time later, Griffiths left to become superior of another Hindu-style monastery, Shabtivanam, which had preceeded Kurisumala.

At first the Trappist Order refused its approbation for this experiment, but in 1998 it was officially received into its bosom as a valid way to experience monastic life. It is still waiting for the approval of the Vatican Congregation of the Oriental Eastern Churches.

Here you can see in which direction the winds of the future for the Conciliar Church are blowing...

All the Progressivists demand that the Catholic Church change her liturgy and monastic life to accomodate India. Not to do so would be insupportable because it would impose Western culture on a Eastern people. Quite curiously, the same Progressivists are always promoting Hinduism and Buddhism in our Western spirituality. Isn't this also an imposition on our Western culture? Why does the rule of "inculturation" apply in one direction and not in the other?

National Catholic Reporter, May 19, 2006

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