CHAPTER 10
Interview with Father Bruno Barnhardt
Emmaculate Heart Hermitage
Father Barnhardt is a member of the same Catholic order-the Camaldolese Monks-as Father Bede Griffiths and has spent time at the Shantivanam Ashram. He shared some of his observations with Hinduism Today:
*Q. What is your observation on how Shantivanam has been successful as a
means of conveying the Catholic message to the Indian people?
*A. For a long while for Catholicism to go into another country it would
mean to bring some kind of European culture and implant it on top of the
indigenous culture. Ideally Christianity can become incarnate in any
different culture Father Bede’s experiment is a courageous experiment in
that direction and there has been quite a bit of resistance to it
throughout the Catholic Church within the Indian Episcopy of the church
but it is gaining favor because, effectively, the central authorities
have endorsed it. Actually on one level, it is not that far out, not
that advanced. On the liturgy, for instance, there are no radical
alternations of the Eucharist. He’s added on some readings at the
beginning which can come from Buddhist texts, Hindu texts, and others
and then it proceeds. The only thing that is different in the
sacramental gestures, there is use of flowers, fires, smoke, which is
very impressive. He rightly perceives that there is no problem, no
contamination of the Christian form by doing that.
Q. Is there any reaction from the local Hindu community that you are
aware of?
A. There is quite a complacency in a sense, if not a resistance, a kind
of indifference to interreligious dialogue on the part of educated
Hindus. However, the local people see the ashram as a genuine spiritual
center and especially they admire Father Bede and esteem him as a
spiritual leader.
*Q. On Father Bede himself, we understand that he looks and lives like a
Hindu swami wearing orange robes, practicing vegetarianism yoga, etc.
How does the Roman Catholic Church view this?
*A. I think some of the local clergy are probably turned off by it. You
know some of the Catholic clergy in India are somewhat defensive, so
anything that looks like a reversion to what they might consider
paganism would be dangerous and threatening to them. However, there is
an enlighted, broad and opened Catholic consciousness also there among
the theologians and some of the Bishops.
*Q. One Catholic nun, Ishapriya, claims to have actually taken the rites
of initiation of a sannyasin from a Hindu swami.
*A. That’s a little unusual. Father Bede confers the rite of Sannyasin
himself upon some of the people who stay at this ashram or who have
become students, but for it to be received directly from a Hindu guru is
unusual. One has to work that out in his own conscience, work out the
way in which it relates to his Christian commitment. They see the
sannyasin as a legitimate development of Christian spirituality.
Consequently, Father Bede is able to ordain Christian sannyasins. I
think that the Sannyasis that he has ordained are westerners who return
to their western world and try to work out that commitment in their own
context. They are not people who are going to infiltrate into Hinduism.
*Q. The accusation is made that these priests take up the sannyas garb
and ways as a means of infiltrating into Hindu society, claiming the
place of religious authority within Hindu society which the Hindu
Sannyasin holds and then using it as a means to make converts to
Catholicism.
*A. That could be. That has two sides of it, one is proselytism directly
and a deceptive or improper use of the garb; however if a person really
feels that his spiritual journey has carried him to that point and if he
also has in mind that he is a witness to the gospel and really doesn’t
necessarily want to convert people but wants in some way to communicate
Christianity in the form that makes sense to Hindus.
*Q. Does he actually have a conversion program as far as bringing people
into Catholicism from the Indian community?
*A. Oh, no I don’t know if there is any effort at all of that kind. I
think he would not approve of that. What he feels is that what is needed
more is a marriage of Hinduism and Christianity rather than bringing
people over from one to the other. The conversion thing is not part of
his style.