November 20, 1968
(Mother looks weary. Her face is swollen by a tooth abscess.)
Do you have anything?
Yes, news from the Vatican.
Oh! … tell me, it’s interesting.
P.L. has sent photos of the man supposed to be doing magic. You know that he is an intimate friend of the Pope’s, his private collaborator, and at the same time archbishop at the State Secretariat of the Holy See. Here’s his photo.
Oh, he wears such a big hat!
(Mother looks for a long time)
And what does V. say? [[V. is the disciple who had a vision of a prelate repeating mantras. ]]
He isn’t here at the moment.
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Are archbishops dressed like this? What nationality is he?
He is from [such and such a country].
(Mother remains silent)
Brother A. [[A Catholic monk who has been lodging at the Ashram for about a year. ]] has become close to the Consul and his wife … and with people he speaks ill of the Ashram. I don’t know why. These people, their whole mentality is based on “the end justifies the means.” That’s what comes out of the photo.
(silence)
And we’ve heard that a whole Catholic school with chaplains is coming on a visit to the Ashram…. From where? I don’t know. From France, I believe.
But give these people all you can and they give you all the poison they can.
Yes.
And the best among them are like that.
They don’t simply come to see and learn: they come to discover all that they can criticize – and in the appearance, there’s no dearth of things to criticize!
(Mother goes into
a long meditation)
I think it will take a lot more time before all this changes.
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