Above you see two religious women in their habits standing in recollection before Hindu-style tombs. Who are these women? What are they doing?

They are Benedictine Sisters Samuel Nougue-Debat and Marie Pinlou, both from France. They traveled to South India to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Benedictine Fr. Henri Le Saux, who in 1950 founded a monastery in India to integrate the Benedictine and Hindu spiritualities. The tomb above with the garland of flowers is that of Fr. Le Saux, alias, Swami Abhishiktananda, the name he took to express his affinity with Hindu spirituality. You can see how his appearance came to reflect his integration into Hinduism, below first row.

Le Saux became one of the bridge-builders between Catholicism and Hinduism and one of the founders of a new syncretistic spirituality, which today is flooding countless Catholic monasteries and convents.

This 2010 Centenary Symposium gathered together Benedictines and Cistercians from around the world with Hindus of South India: Below second row, Fr. Mark Serna of Portsmouth Abbey, RI, President of North American Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue poses with a Hindu religious; third row from the left, Fr. William Skudlarek, secretary general of the same organization, and Fr. George Nelliyatanil from Sri Lanka; Sister Mary Louise from Shantivanam, South India; Fr. Cyprian Consiglio of New Camaldoli in Big Sur, CA, and, finally, Fr. Charles Cummings OCSO of Holy Trinity Abbey, Huntsville, UT, and Karl A. Rohr of Garden City, NY.

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These are fruits of Vatican II's inter-religious dialogue.

Photos from Catapulta

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