This is exactly the commentary that tells me that making simplistic judgments on Thomas Merton are simply not fair and shows an unwilllingness to understand the complexities of a man.

Thomas Merton on post-Vatican II liturgy

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/09/thomas-merton-on-post-vatican-ii-liturgy.html

Many of us know priests who love the traditional Latin Mass some days while celebrating a novus ordo liturgy with Vatican II novelties such as Gospel bands and altar girls other days. This liturgical schizophrenia -- truly nothing short of a bi-polar approach to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass -- was apparently exemplified by the prominent Trappist Father Louis, OCSO (born Thomas Merton).


For Father Louis (his religious name that appears on his tombstone, above), his liturgical sensibilities began in quite the traditional manner.  In his 1948 autobiography "The Seven Storey Mountain", he wrote of his love of "the warmth of Gregorian chant" and noted his first attendance at Mass (before converting) was an August 1938 Low Mass at Corpus Christi church in New York, where he was impressed by even a music-free liturgy.

In that famous book, he also described walking into "old Zion church", his parents' house of worship in Douglaston, Long Island, New York.  Note the implicit connection between congregational singing, Americanism and Protestantism:


    "Then there was a lectern, shaped like an eagle with outspread wings, on which rested a huge Bible. Nearby was an American flag, and above that was one of those little boards they have in Protestant churches, on which the numbers of the hymns to be sung are indicated by black and white cards."


In the 1960s, Father Louis would get caught up in the spirit of Vatican II, but he also showed some misgiving.  A recent article by Gregory K. Hillis, an associate professor of theology at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, highlighted some of these quotes in the context of embracing "really groovy" Mass insanity in 1967, while writing numerous letters in the same decade opposing the reforms that led to the novus ordo (which he did not live to see). From the article:


    ...Merton knew that liturgical reform was risky, and in a letter to Dom Denys Rackley, a Carthusian at La Grande Chartreuse written five days after the constitution's promulgation, he expresses his reservations about the liturgical doors opened up by the council:


    "Our great danger is to throw away things that are excellent, which we do not understand, and replace them with mediocre forms which seem to us to be more meaningful and which in fact are only trite. I am very much afraid that when all the dust clears we will be left with no better than we deserve, a rather silly, flashy, seemingly up-to-date series of liturgical forms that have lost the dignity and the meaning of the old ones."


Another part of the article states:

    But Merton also frequently expresses frustration with the willingness with which progressives were willing to rid the liturgy of that which had timeless value. Merton's frustrations come through clearly in a 1965 letter to an Anglican:


    "As I tell all my Anglican friends, 'I hope you will have the sense to maintain traditions that we are now eagerly throwing overboard'."


    He is particularly concerned about the ease with which Latin and Gregorian chant were being abandoned, even in the monastery:


    "The monks cannot understand the treasure they possess, and they throw it out to look for something else, when seculars, who for the most part are not even Christians, are able to love this incomparable art."


We highlight these statements, as one will likely not hear them from any Merton groupie. In fact, some (James Martin, S.J.) will clearly state the Catholic "arrogance" of Father Louis in 1948 would bear no resemblance to a modern Thomas Merton had he lived beyond the 1960s.

Nevertheless, someone of Merton's prominence who warned of the "great danger" of "eagerly throwing aboard" centuries of Roman Catholic tradition concerning Holy Mass in the midst of the rupture of the Second Vatican Council and its implementation should be noted.

I once had a conservation with the late Fr. Urban (John Francis) Snyder, he was a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, in Kentucky with Fr. Thomas Merton.  Fr. Snyder, a traditional priest had left the Abbey, had written a book about Merton but he did not want it published in his name. I also know the Catholic journalist that was asked by Fr. Snyder if he could publish the book using his name as the author. The journalist refused. Whatever became of the book is unknown to me.

Fr. Snyder, who held a Masters degree in history and a Doctorate of Law degree from Jefferson University in Philadelphia, was three years older than Fr. Merton when he entered Gethsemani in 1942 at thirty years of age.  Fr. Merton entered the monastery as a novice also in 1942.  Fr. Snyder was ordained in 1947 and Fr. Merton was ordained in 1949.  After Fr. Snyder's ordination he was made Retreat Master and then Novice Master. He would, over the next few years, hold every office in the Monastery except that of Abbot. He eventually transferred to the Cistercian monastery in Genesee, NY because of the progressive liberalism at Gethsemani, but eventually he left there as well and worked with Archbishop Lefebvre in the early seventies.  The last time I saw Fr. Snyder was around 1986.

Fr. Snyder told me two things about Merton that I remember well.  The first is that the general opinion is that Merton became gradually more liberal in his writings, but before the end of his life he had seen the error of Eastern mysticism and was returning to a more traditional Catholic spirituality.  Fr. Snyder said that this was not true.  He said that Merton was always very liberal from the beginning but this was not evident in his earlier writings because they were highly edited by his religious superiors.  What changed over time in the progress of his writings was that his superiors became more liberal and edited less and less questionable material from his writings before publication.  

The second thing he said concerned the death of Fr. Merton.  Fr. Merton kept a very detailed journal and in that journal he had entered what he had done the day before his sudden and unexpected death.  The day before he died Merton wrote about his experience at a pagan Buddhist ceremony.  The entry was written from the perspective of an active participant with those conducting the pagan worship.  Merton died the following day when an electric fan fell into his bath.  There is, as far as I know, no evidence of ѕυιcιdє.  Merton was looking for some kind of mystical syncretism with eastern paganism and Catholic spirituality.  Whatever if any attraction he may have had for the traditional liturgy could not have been for the right reasons.

Fr. Snyder died in 1993 at 82 years of age.  To the charitable credit of the monks at Cistercian monastery in Genesee, NY, when Fr. Snyder, always a monk, returned to the monastery twenty years later in failing health, he was taken in and cared for by the monks during the last few years of his life.  He was a good priest and faithful to tradition.  Remember the blessed repose of his soul.

Drew