Anthony de Mello, also known as Tony de Mello, was an IndianJesuit priest and psychotherapist. A spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker, de Mello wrote several books on spirituality and hosted numerous spiritual retreats and conferences. He continues to be known for his storytelling which drew from the various mystical traditions of both East and West and for introducing many people in the West to mindfulness-based practices he sometimes called "awareness prayer."
Beginnings
De Mello was the oldest of five children born to Frank and Louisa née Castellino de Mello. He was born in Bombay, British India, on 4 September 1931. He was raised in a Catholic family and dreamed of one day joining the Jesuit order. At the age of 16, de Mello entered the Society of Jesus at the seminary of Vinalaya on the outskirts of Bombay. In 1952, he was sent to Spain to study philosophy in Barcelona before undertaking ministry. He then returned to India to study theology at De Nobili College in Pune and was ordained to the priesthood in March 1961. After his return to India, he spent several years working in seminaries, and in 1968 he was made rector of the seminary of Vinalaya. De Mello was first attracted to the Jesuits for their strict discipline. Those who knew him during his earlier years in the order described him as somewhat conservative in his theology and reluctant to explore other religions. Some of his peers noted that his experience in Spain led him to broaden his perspective and to lose much of his rigidity.
Work
In 1972, he founded the Institute of Pastoral Counselling, later renamed the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counselling, in Poona, India. De Mello's first published book, Sadhana – A Way to God, was released in 1978. It outlined a number of spiritual principles and "Christian exercises in Eastern form" inspired by the teachings of Saint Ignatius. It popularized the notion of "awareness prayer" in the United States for his readers and for those who attended his lectures. De Mello died of a heart attack in 1987, aged 55, in New York City.
Posthumous controversy
In 1998, 11 years after de Mello's death, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of its Cardinal-Prefect, Joseph Ratzinger conducted a review of de Mello's work and released a lengthy comment expressing appreciation but also theological concern that, while there was no explicit heresy, some might be misled into seeing Jesus not as the Son of God but as simply one who came to teach that all are children of God. The Indian magazine Outlook saw this as an attempt by Rome to undermine the clergy in Asia amid widening fissures between Rome and the Asian Church. De Mello's books are available in many Catholic bookshops in the West, but include the advisory that they were written in a multi-religious context and are not intended to be manuals on Christian doctrine.
