"Catholic church in Oregon allows Buddhist monks to lead ‘meditation’ before the altar"

"Tibetan Buddhist monks instructed Catholics in their religious practices and led them in non-Christian chants at a Catholic church in Oregon.

On June 26, 2024, five Buddhist monks were invited to Resurrection Catholic Parish in Tualatin, Oregon. According to the parish pastor, Father Bill Moisant, the monks, whom he does not name, came from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in southern India and are followers of the Dalai Lama. Photographs show that two of them gave a small group of primarily elderly Catholics a presentation on Buddhist 'meditation' and led a prayer session in the nave of the church.

A concerned parishioner who attended the event and provided LifeSiteNews with photographs and video footage decried that the Buddhist monks carried out their instruction, chants, and prayers in the sanctuary before the altar and near the tabernacle. He also lamented the false characterization of Christ expressed in the course of the event and an apparent disrespect for the sufferings of Christ.

'Our Lord was compared to Buddha as a great teacher, a theologically inaccurate and offensive statement,' he told LifeSiteNews via email.

'The presentation emphasized Buddhist meditation techniques to escape suffering, seemingly ignoring Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross.'

The witness reported that parishioners engaged with the monks without expressing concerns about conflicts between Buddhist practices and the Catholic faith. He was similarly concerned that that session ended with a Buddhist prayer and offering of intentions, which he felt was a 'further blurring' of 'the lines between Catholic and Buddhist practices.'...

Fr. Moisant highlighted the event in the parish newsletter, saying that the monks had come 'to familiarize us with their faith and to teach various forms of meditation.'

'Through meditation and a vigorous way of life, the monks are striving to attain a sense of peace, compassion, humility, joy and love with all people and to live in harmony with the environment,' he continued. 'These are qualities which are familiar to Catholics, since that is what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel.'

'I pray for the continued fruitfulness of their teaching,' he concluded."

Resurrection #Catholic Parish in Tualatin, #Oregon, recently hosted #Buddhist monks leading meditation in the #church, right in front of the sanctuary and the tabernacle. Faithful #Catholics are rightly scandalized by this gross insult to Our Lord and His Church. pic.twitter.com/8lS2OswRnG

— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) July 5, 2024