Whither Catholic Zen?...

Ann Arbor, MI's St. Blase Church's Illumination Lenten Peace Series hosts a talk by a practitioner of the Zen Buddhist Temple, and as I read about the talk, I think of a recent piece a friend shared that challenges the assumption that there might be a fruitful exchange between Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. (Full disclosure: I write this with a background of 15 years of Catholic education...) Reading this piece provides a very illuminating moment of ignorance. I can only experience the need to disagree and admit that I lack the scholarly background -- or subtly of insight -- to challenge the co-authors on their own terms. The Jesuit priest and author they quote, Robert Kennedy, S.J. -- Kennedy Roshi -- led the first sesshin I attended and is the teacher of my teacher. The sesshins I have attended since have been full of Catholics. I have no idea what it "means," but it is.

The Jesuit grad in me can't end this without citing sources. At the time of Kennedy Roshi installation of Kevin Hunt Sensei, a Trappist monk from St. Joseph's Abbey, in Spencer, MA (very near my alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross), as a Dharma successor, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., wrote:

Because of the long preparation and training required to become a master of the demanding Zen training, Fr. Hunt's achievement is one that we can all celebrate in thanksgiving to God ... Jesuits and other Christians have found Zen to be a valuable instrument for progressing in the spiritual life. ... By coming to focus on the present moment through the practice of the techniques of Zen meditation, the Christian can become aware of God's immediate loving presence.

I believe it was in Kennedy Roshi's book Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit: The Place of Zen in Christian Life that he quotes something Yamada Roshi said to him:

I am not trying to make you a Buddhist, but to empty you in imitation of your Lord, Jesus Christ.