'austraLasia' #111
DUPUIS INVESTIGATION SHOCKS CALCUTTA JESUITS: INDIAN SDB THEOLOGIAN
NAMED SUSPECT FOR CURRENT JESUIT WITCH HUNT
By C. M. Paul, SDB
CALCUTTA, 21 November -- The Vatican investigation news of Fr. Jacques
Dupuis SJ of Gregorian University Rome received strong condemnation from
fellow Jesuits in Calcutta province. He has been a member of this
province for about 50 years.
A Jesuit theological forum which met on 21st November in Calcutta
expressed its concern over the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith's
recent trend of censuring Indian theologians. They send messages of
support to Fr. Dupuis.
Dupuis' latest book entitled: TOWARDS A CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN
PLURALISM has drawn Ratzinger's ire...
Another gathering of laity and religious attending Fr. Michael Amaldoss
SJ's lecture on "Perspectives of Mission in India Today" at the same
venue, 21 November, was also briefed on the immediate background of the
Dupuis case with excerpts from his letter to his provincial in Calcutta.
Earlier, Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta who had Fr. Dupuis as his
personal theologian was one of the first to send a letter of support to
Fr. Dupuis.
"I do not think that you will have much difficulty in explaining your
position," wrote Archbishop D'Souza in his 13th November email dispatch
lending support and expressing anxiety over the future of scientific
theologizing in India.
"In the east we talk in parables and in stories," said the former
Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference Secretary, Archbishop D'Souza
explaining eastern thought which would not be stated in the same words
as in the past (west). "Naturally they will be defective," he noted.
"Perhaps we have to pray also for those who still build walls around the
faith and rob it of the rich insights which it can get from the sharing
and inter-change with the spirit's presence outside," added.
Archbishop D'Souza heard of the Dupuis case on his return from a
Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) and Conference of Religious
India (CRI) joint meeting at Raiganj, West Bengal. In it he called on
the CBCI to reflect on Vatican's condemnation of prominent Indian Jesuit
author Fr. Tony D'Mello eleven years after his death.
An Indian SDB theologian currently on staff in the Urban University Rome
has been named key suspect in the email dispatches circulating.
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