Mons. Munilla questions again the theological approaches of the priest Pablo d’Ors

The Bishop of Orihuela-Aliante, Mons. José Ignacio Munilla has questioned the theological approaches of the priest Pablo d’Ors, who has expressed in a recent interview: “Between God and love, I choose love.”

The Prelate has shared three reflections through its social networks about this D’Ors statement, founder of the private association of faithful friends, approved by the Archdiocese of Madrid.

Mons. Munilla states, in the first place, that “God is love, but our love is not God”, and, in the second instance, he points out that “there is an imposture that consists in replacing God for happiness; which is as much as it is as to replace the cause for the effect. Now, the effect is not possible without the cause.”

Third, the Spanish bishop considers that “it is convenient to do the exercise of asking us about how the phrase ‘between God and love, I choose love’ will be understood; since I bet that atheists will applaud her with the ears.”

The presbyter’s statement is related to a passage from his latest book, Devotionin which he affirms: “If believing the believer from what he has before Him, that is not God, but an opioceous, a substitute. With that I am pointing to the care that should always be had with the theological reflection and with religious poetry, since, through his spells – going with the truth or beauty – they can move away from God (they usually do it), so Faith to speak or write about God.

This is assured by the author of the interview, José Beltrán, who asks the priest about the first sentence of that paragraph, to which d’Ors replies:

“I will say it in a very provocative way: between God and love, I choose love. Because love is relationship with other people and that can be seen and verified, while God is still an idea or an experience, something that is not verified, it is not known to what extent it is real. Getting to that so elementary, not from an ideological point of view, but experienced, it has cost me 60 years.”

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It is not the first time that Mons. Munilla is critical of some of Pablo d’Ors’s approaches. Last January, the prelate dedicated a video of more than 30 minutes to refute those that consider syncretist theories of the priest, enunciated during a presentation at the Ibero -American Meeting for religion professors held in May 2022 under the title Jesus of Nazareth, master of consciousness.

On that occasion, D’Ors explained that Jesus can be considered a yogi, because he would have acquired his wisdom traveling to India during the years of hidden life. “It does not seem to be sensible to maintain that Jesus’ wisdom would have learned directly from his Father God,” he said.

Oriental Christianity and Spirituality

D’Ors was ordained a priest in 1991 as a Claretian missionary and performed an apostolic work as a hospital chaplain for 10 years. After founding friends of the desert, he asked Cardinal Carlos Osoro, archbishop emeritus in Madrid, dedicate himself completely to it.

As explained on its website, friends of the desert is a “network of meditators” that organizes retreats from different types throughout the year, initiation, deepening or contemplative.

Some themes are also organized, such as the one held last March under the title Yoga and Christianitydirected by Pablo d’Ors and Gustavo Plaza, an Ecuadorian specialist in Yoga Rahashya, who identifies as his “guru” Father César Dávila, a Catholic priest who “after a deep spiritual emptiness due to lack of God’s internal experience,” contacted a yogi of India who was visiting Ecuador.

The Friends of the Desert Association defines as “father” to San Carlos de Foucauld and as “teacher” to the Jesuit P. Franz Jalics. They are considered followers of the spiritual school of Hesicasmo (“Search for peace through stillness”) and, for those who have made a long journey in their teachings, offer a secular monacato experience in the mountain, inspired by the evangelical passage of transfiguration in Mount Tabor.