'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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