Was the Indian Jesuit spiritual writer and speaker Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) murdered in the Jesuit residence at Fordham University in the Bronx 25 years ago? Bill deMello's biography of his older brother Tony describes in detail the suspicious circumstances of Tony's death. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was another Catholic spiritual author whose suspicious death in Bangkok, Thailand, has also raised questions.

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(Article changed on February 20, 2013 at 19:43)

(Article changed on February 18, 2013 at 19:31)

Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) February 18, 2013: On March 1, 2013, Orbis Book is scheduled to release the American edition of the book titled ANTHONY DE MELLO: THE HAPPY WANDERER: A TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER, written by Bill de Mello, who now lives in Australia, and edited by Clifford W. DeSilva, a former Jesuit in India. The book was originally published in India about the time of the 25th anniversary of Anthony de Mello's death in 1987. Last summer, I was given a copy of the book that was published in India. As a result, I have had ample time to digest it.

The Roman Catholic spiritual writer Thomas Merton (1915-1968) died in Bangkok, Thailand, as the result of a supposedly weird accident.

But the death of Anthony ("Tony") de Mello (1931-1987), the popular Jesuit spiritual director from India and author of a number of popular books on spirituality, was even more suspicious than Thomas Merton's death, as I will explain momentarily.

At the time of his sudden death, Tony was a rising star in Roman Catholic spirituality. Jesuit priests and other Catholics in religious orders, including a certain number of Catholic women religious, flocked to Tony's spirituality center in Poona, India, to take part in his experimental group-counseling retreats, which were conducted something like encounter groups, but only for Catholics in religious orders.

In addition to conducting his famous experimental group-counseling retreats that attracted Catholics from different countries, Tony was popular on the lecture circuit in Catholic circles, giving spirituality conferences in different countries, including the United States. At times, his summer lecture tours in the United States also at times included conducting his experimental group-counseling retreats for certain Catholics who understood in advance what kind of experience they were signing up for.

In 1964, Tony had received his Master's degree in pastoral counseling from Loyola University Chicago. Carl Rogers and Fritz Perls were major figures influencing Tony's thought. However, in such posthumously published books as AWARENESS (Image, 1992, the edited transcription of one of his spirituality conferences), REDISCOVERING LIFE (Image, 2012, the edited transcription of another one of his spirituality conferences), and THE WAY TO LOVE (reissued Image, 2012, a coherent and cogent series of meditations that he wrote but did not publish in his lifetime), Tony sounds like Albert Ellis on steroids.

But Tony's thought that sounds like Albert Ellis on steroids was probably most deeply influenced by the thought of the spiritual guide from India, Jiddu Krishnamurti and the kind of meditation that Krishnamurti advocated -- which resembles Buddhist meditation, even though Krishnamurti himself was not a Buddhist. In any event, like Krishnamurti, Tony also sounds like a Buddhist, even though he was not a Buddhist.

Tony was a Jesuit priest trained in and steeped in the Jesuit tradition of meditation and contemplation expressed in the book titled the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, the short book of instructions for so-called spiritual exercises that the founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius Loyola compiled before he founded the Jesuit order. In the first year of the two-year Jesuit novitiate, Jesuit novices make a 30-day retreat in silence following the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES of St. Ignatius Loyola. Years later in Jesuit training, Jesuits devote a third year to novitiate-like living that is known in Jesuit parlance as tertianship ("tertio" means three in Latin), during which they once again make a 30-day retreat in silence following the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. Tony was an experienced retreat director in directing Jesuits making 30-day retreats.

By way of digression, I should explain that Ignatian meditation involves using imagery and actively using of one's imagination. By contrast, Buddhist meditation does not involves using imagery and one's imagination, nor does the kind of meditation favored by Krishnamurti. End of digression.

In his fine biography of Tony, Bill deMello quotes a former Jesuit who explains how Tony had come to experiment with group-counseling retreats, which up to that time had not exactly been part of the Jesuit tradition of spirituality:

"'Tony gave up 'guiding' people in 30-day retreats and moved to 'counseling' sessions -- he saw that the 'fruit' [Jesuit parlance for 'benefit'] of the Spiritual Exercises could not be savored in full because people were locked up in psychological problems and insecurities and were at emotional dead-ends. At that stage, they needed counseling (more than spirituality) to free them from these blocks (as evidenced by the testimony of so many) so that they could then more deeply drink of the waters of the Ignatian vision.'" (Quoted on page 204.)

In Carl Rogers' terminology, people who are at emotional dead-ends are not fully functioning. For a perceptive book about being at emotional dead-ends, see John Bradshaw's HEALING THE SHAME THAN BINDS YOU (rev. ed. 2005). In Bradshaw's terminology, people whose emotions are bound are as a result at emotional dead-ends.

However, even if certain people were at emotional dead-ends when they made 30-day retreats, they themselves may not have understood that they were are emotional dead-ends. As a result of being at emotional dead-ends, they may not have savored in full the fruit of the Spiritual Exercises as they did them, as this unidentified former Jesuit puts it. Nevertheless, they may have applied themselves diligently to doing the Spiritual Exercises, the last one of which is known as an exercise to attain the love of God -- or more accurately, to attain the impression that one is loved by God.

Now, in THE WAY TO LOVE (reissued Image, 2012), Tony describes how a man who feels deeply loved emerges filled with euphoria:

"A man in love does indeed go out to the world not in love but in euphoria. For him the world takes on an unreal, rosy hue, which it loses the moment the euphoria dies. His so-called love is generated not by his clear perception of reality but by the conviction, true or false, that he is loved by someone -- a conviction that is dangerously fragile, because it is founded on the unreliable, changeable people who he believes love him.. And who can at any moment pull the switch and turn off his euphoria." (Quoted from pages 114-115.)

Digression: Euphoria is a typical characteristic of a hypo-manic episode. For my present purposes, I will operationally define the euphoria of a hypo-manic episode as uncontained and unregulated euphoria. But I think that Tony is here referring to a somewhat more contained and regulated experience of euphoria. When a person experiences euphoria in a somewhat contained and regulated way, he or she feels animated. As a result, he or she is usually a high-energy person who feels ready to conquer the world, so to speak. End of digression.

Now, when a person who is at emotional dead-ends makes the Spiritual Exercise to attain God's love, he or she may emerge from doing this exercise feeling that God does indeed truly love him or her. As a result, the person who is at emotional dead-ends will go forth feeling loved by God and will as a result be filled with euphoria.

So a question arises: How many Jesuits who were at emotional dead-ends have emerged from their 30-day retreats feeling loved by God and as a result filled with euphoria? How many Jesuits, if any, have not been at emotional dead-ends?

In his perceptive essay "St. Ignatius' Prison-Cage and the Existentialist Situation" in the Jesuit-sponsored journal THEOLOGICAL STUDIES, volume 15, number 1 (March 1954): pages 34-51, the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) examines and discusses St. Ignatius Loyola's cryptic and puzzling prison imagery. His prison imagery suggests that he himself felt imprisoned, despite all the fruits he had himself savored as he was doing the Spiritual Exercises. In effect, his prison imagery also suggests that he was himself at emotional dead-ends.

In THE WAY TO LOVE (pages 16, 25, 48, 50, 68), Tony works with prison imagery in different ways to characterize our human condition before we have advanced to the condition wherein we are free from our emotional dead-ends.

But if Tony himself had somehow managed to move beyond emotional dead-ends, which appears to have been the case, we may wonder exactly how this happened to him. Unfortunately, Bill deMello's otherwise fine biography of Tony does not shed much light on how this happened to Tony, if it did indeed happen to him, as I believe it did.

Your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not Jesuits will appreciate having the above quotation about Jesuits published in Bill deMello's book. Make no mistake about this quotation. Not many people besides Jesuits make 30-day retreats, even though it is possible for non-Jesuits to sign up for such 30-day retreats at Jesuit retreat centers in the United States.

Your guess is as good as mine as to just how effective Tony's experimental group-counseling retreats were in moving the participants toward overcoming their psychological limitations. But it is possible that a certain number of the participants emerged from the experimental retreats at emotional dead-ends, just as they had been when they signed up for the retreat. In this way, a certain number of participants may have been disillusioned about the possible effectiveness of the retreat. Moreover, given the nature of Tony's experimental group-counseling retreats, it also possible that occasionally a participant may have felt deeply humiliated in the retreat -- perhaps deeply humiliated enough to want revenge on Tony for what had happened.

In any event, Fr. Frank Stroud, S.J., Tony's fan and host in the Jesuit community at Fordham University in the Bronx found Tony dead on the floor of his room on the morning of June 1, 1987. Tony's body was curled up in a fetal position. His official death certificate lists the immediate cause of his death as "Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease with recent thrombosis of left circumflex branch." But how many people who are dying of a heart attack curl up on the floor in a fetal position?

Moreover, Tony had no known history of heart disease. Furthermore, within a year of his death, he had been examined by a physician in the United States, who also served as President Jimmy Carter's doctor, who had told Tony that he was quite healthy. But perhaps the doctor had missed something important in his examination, eh?

By coincidence, Tony's younger brother Bill de Mello had been visiting Manhattan at the time when Tony had arrived in New York City for his upcoming spirituality conference at Fordham University in the Bronx, which was scheduled to be televised via satellite to a number of Catholic campuses. Bill de Mello was able to visit with Tony in the Jesuit residence at Fordham on the evening of May 31, 1987. But as mentioned, Tony was found dead in his room the next morning by Fr. Stroud.

Bill de Mello recounts that after they had had dinner at the Jesuit residence Tony had complained of some kind of stomach trouble. If Tony had ingested some kind of poison at dinner, how did the real culprit behind his murder manage to poison him, when Bill and others who had dinner in the Jesuit residence that evening were not poisoned?

Tony's complaints after dinner about his stomach trouble had seemed to Bill to sound similar to his own recent trouble with an upset stomach and indigestion after he had arrived in New York City. Bill's colleagues at work in Manhattan had advised him to take Pepto-Bismol. It had worked for Bill, so he advised Tony to take Pepto-Bismol. But when Tony inquired about this at the Jesuit residence, he was told that there was no Pepto-Bismol there. As a result, Bill left the Jesuit residence and went in search of a pharmacy where he could buy some. He then returned to the Jesuit residence with some Pepto-Bismol. Tony then took some. It evidently provided him with a certain measure of relief at the time, because he was able to continue his visit with Bill. When Bill left Tony that evening, Tony was obviously alive.

It is not hard to imagine how disconcerted Bill felt the next day when Fr. Stroud called him at work in Manhattan to tell him that he (Fr. Stroud) had found Tony dead in his room that morning curled up on the floor in a fetal position.

Got that -- in a fetal position? Had somebody somehow killed Tony and then arranged his body on the floor in a fetal position, and then slipped out of Tony's room? Or did Fr. Stroud just make up this fantastic detail about Tony's corpse? But for what reason would the rector have made up this detail when Fr. Stroud told Bill about his brother's death? But if Fr. Stroud did not make up this fantastic detail, why would Tony himself have curled up in a fetal position on the floor as he was dying?

Questions about Tony's death abound.

Could anybody other than a Jesuit have had access to Tony's room in the Jesuit residence?

Could a fellow Jesuit have murdered Tony somehow and then arranged his body on the floor in a fetal position?

Or could a fellow Jesuit have allowed the real culprit to enter the Jesuit residence and perhaps helped direct him to Tony's room and then perhaps helped the real culprit exit from the Jesuit residence?

What could have motivated Tony's murderer -- jealousy -- or revenge perhaps, but revenge for what -- or did Tony's supposed murderer expect to profit somehow from his death, but how -- by receiving a reward in money or in status and prestige, or by currying the favor of somebody powerful who wanted Tony dead for some reason, but what reason?

In any event, when Fr. Stroud called Bill at work in Manhattan to tell him about Tony's death, Fr. Stroud also told Bill that he (Bill) would be interviewed by a police sergeant because Bill had been one of the last persons to see Tony alive. However, Fr. Stroud later on told Bill that he would not be interviewed after all. Why the change of plans? Was this change in plans part of a cover up that the Jesuits were orchestrating for some reason? From the ongoing priest sex-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, we now know that religious authorities in the church are skilled in orchestrating cover ups.

Tony's body was prepared for burial at a funeral home in the Bronx, and then flown back to India for burial there on June 12, 1987.

In conclusion, both Thomas Merton and Anthony de Mello were Roman Catholic spiritual writers, and both of their suspicious deaths have for understandable reasons aroused suspicions that murder may have been involved. Were their deaths perhaps ordered by a big shot in the Vatican? There appears to be no shortage of Catholic tattle-tales around the world who send reports to big shots in the Vatican, which has a global network of agents known as diplomats in important cities around the world.

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview