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I'm pretty sure the friendship dates back to when Weakland was the Benedictine Abbott and Merton I believe was the Trappist Abbott, though I'm not certain of the latter.
I think Weakland found his body...they were at some conference in Asia when Merton died. (It's been a long time since I read Seven Story Mountain, and other Merton related items)

I would recommend reading AA-1025: The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle , credited to a French priest who was a Communist infiltrator. It explains how the Comintern planted countless agents into seminaries with the long-term goal of subverting the Catholic Church, a goal which saw its fruition in the 1960's.

Also of note is the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita , which outlines a similar Masonic plot to subvert the Church.

So confused Catholics like myself are left to pick which conspiracy theory best explains the current state of the Church. Maybe even the possibility that the Holy Spirit is working through all this.

About Merton, "I think Weakland found his body..." That is a funny detail. Merton died in an accident, was electroucuted by an appliance, while on a trip to a conference in Asia.

Like livius, I am suspicious of conspiracy theories especially about "infiltrators", because it is all so paranoid. However, some rather serious allegatations about the Catholic church, which I initially dismissed (indeed, laughed at) have been shown to be not wholly baseless.

I know this sounds nutty, but I have heard rumours of satanic practices in the clergy, and also masonic rings. The name of Antonio Bugnini has been mentioned in regard to this - whether fairly or not, I don't know. But in my own research into an article on police corruption in Australia, I was astonished to find that a homosexual ring in NSW, which included several highly-placed Catholic clergy, had apparently also been involved in satanic practices. Moreover, these men all died in violent deaths (suicides and murders) before the matter could fully be investigated.

On the topic of infiltrators, would not the Communists have infiltrated other religions as well? They would have found it more easy to get into the Orthodox Church, surely. But they were quite untouched by all this liturical "reform". Just try not kneeling and tossing Holy Communion around in an Orthodox Church ...

Finally, there are other religions. In Islam the Shia clergy always maintained that attempts were made to infiltrate their seminaries, by both Communists and the CIA, during the post-war era. They had various means of restricting this, including a strong insistence upon the cultural basis of their religion - clerical dress etc.

"I think Weakland found his body...they were at some conference in Asia when Merton died. (It's been a long time since I read Seven Story Mountain, and other Merton related items)"

If I remember correctly, Merton died in a monastery in Tibet (of whatever persuasion...). Apparently, a room fan fell into his bath water and electrocuted him. (At least, that's the story I got.) Very interesting...