By Hugh Turley
Franciscan priest Richard Rohr founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rohr has been featured on the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Oprah Winfrey described Rohr “as one of the most influential spiritual teachers in the world,” an assessment echoed by PBS.[1]
In December 2018, the 50th anniversary of Merton’s death, Rohr was invited to speak at a Merton Symposium held at the Chicago Theological Union and co-sponsored by the International Thomas Merton Society. Rohr told the audience his popular story about the first time that he saw Thomas Merton. He was traveling with his family when he asked his parents to pass near Louisville so that he could see where the famous monk lived.[2]
As Rohr tells it, they arrived at the Abbey of Gethsemani on June 2, 1961. His family stepped out of their Chevrolet near the old guest house, when suddenly, the door to the guest house opened, and “There he was!” Rohr said, “I’m not making this up.” He said that he later checked with his mother, and she told him that, yes, you told us that you saw the famous monk. Rohr tells how Thomas Merton was actually there walking with Mother Teresa, “I kid you not.” Then Rohr added, “Action and Contemplation passed right before my eyes.” Evidently, it was this iconic moment that inspired Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation.
Out of Whole Cloth
The most amazing thing about Rohr’s story is that it is not true. In 1961, there were almost 200 monks living at Gethsemani. Many young monks that entered the monastery would not recognize which one was Merton because no one knew what he looked like. It is very unlikely that Rohr would recognize Merton in 1961. It is even more unlikely that Rohr saw Merton walking with Mother Teresa because there is no evidence that she ever visited Gethsemani.
In 1982, Mother Teresa travelled to Kentucky when she was honored at Bellarmine University, in Louisville. Bellarmine is an hour drive from the Abbey of Gethsemani. Mother Teresa did not visit the abbey or meet Merton who had already been dead for 14 years. Kathryn Spink, the biographer of Mother Teresa, told me that she had a great regard for Fr. Rohr, but that she never heard of any meeting between Mother Teresa and Thomas Merton.
Rohr tells his story with so much enthusiasm that he might even believe that it is true. The Seinfeld character, George Costanza said, “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
I asked a Merton scholar at Bellarmine University why does Rohr tell this story about seeing Merton and Mother Teresa that is certainly not true? He told me, “Audiences love to hear it.” Rohr’s audience at the Chicago Theological Union reminds us of St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but following their own desires, will surround themselves with teachers who will tickle their ears.”
Sacred scripture is a prophetic interpretation of our present world. Who are these people today who will not tolerate sound doctrine and prefer to have their ears tickled? Many of them are the luminaries of the International Thomas Merton Society. We know their names because they were presenters at the Merton conference where Rohr was their keynote speaker, and they were in his audience. Among them were Dan Horan OFM, Robert Ellsberg, Cassidy Hall, Gregory Hillis, Christopher Pramuk, Judith Valente, Br. Paul Quenon OCSO, Mark Meade, David Golemboski, and Jon Sweeney. Many of them are officers or former officers of the ITMS.
Some of the people in Rohr’s audience must have known that his story about seeing Merton with Mother Teresa was not true. How could people listen to Rohr say things that were not true and then applaud? Perhaps the answer is found in the Gospel of Mark where the leading men of Galilee were present at King Herod’s birthday party. When the daughter of Herodias requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter, no one objected or left the party. Herod’s guests were satisfied to be invited to the palace and they wished to remain at the king’s party.
There is something important about truthfulness that we can learn from Richard Rohr and his audience. Christ taught that those who can be trusted in small things can also be trusted in great things. Rohr’s deception that Merton and Mother Teresa were walking together on June 2, 1961, at the Abbey of Gethsemani, invites us to examine more important things that Rohr and his audience have said about Merton.
Not the Most Important Lie
In 2021, Franciscan Media published an article with a more serious popular error by Rohr, that Merton died by accidental electrocution in Bangkok. The article also repeated Rohr’s Mother Teresa story.[3] The false story that Merton took a shower and died by accidental electrocution was debunked in our book The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, published in March 2018. In 2021, Professor Joseph Quinn Raab, editor of the Merton Annual, wrote, “It is no longer plausible to conclude that Merton’s death was the result of accidental electrocution.”[4] We contacted Franciscan Media about Rohr’s errors that they published, and they did not respond.
Members of Rohr’s audience in Chicago have a like-mindedness to repeat his error about Merton’s death. Judith Valente said that Merton was “accidentally electrocuted after touching the faulty wiring of a fan.”[5] Jon Sweeney wrote that Merton “was a klutz and accidentally electrocuted himself in the bathroom; not a heroic death, to be sure.”[6] Robert Ellsberg said that Merton took a shower and was “apparently electrocuted by the faulty wiring of a fan.”[7] Br. Paul Quenon said that Merton “died by electrical shock moving a fan with a shorted circuit.”[8] There is as much evidence that Merton died by accidental electrocution as there is that Merton and Mother Teresa walked in front of Rohr on June 2, 1961.
Mother Teresa was canonized St. Teresa of Calcutta by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016. If a positio concerning the virtuous life of Thomas Merton is ever presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, it will not come from people who are indifferent to the truth. The evidence of Merton’s heroic virtues will come from people who love the truth. Thomas Merton wrote, “We make ourselves real by telling the truth.”[9]
About
the author: Hugh Turley is co-author of The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An
Investigation
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rohr [2] Fr. Richard Rohr, Merton Symposium, Chicago Theological Union, Dec. 7, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4YuixGyEss&t=2006s [3] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/richard-rohr-on-thomas-mertons-legacy [4] Joseph Quinn Raab, Opening New Horizons: Seeds of a Theology of Religious Pluralism in Thomas Merton’s Dialogue with D.T. Suzuki, Pickwick Publications, p. 3 [5] https://judithvalente.medium.com/traveling-the-road-to-joy-in-letters-e75cb0895fbb [6] Jon M. Sweeney, Born Again and Again, Paraclete Press, 2005, p. 125 [7] Robert Ellsberg, A Living Gospel, Reading God’s Story in Holy Lives, Orbis, 2019, pp.70-71 [8] Br. Paul Quenon, O.C.S.O., In Praise of a Useless Life, Ave Maria Press, 2018, p. 115 [9] Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983, p. 198